Beginning to finish

[cebrooker]

I am keen to start finishing my own mouldings but have absolutely no idea about where to start. If people could point me in a good direction with either different waxes, dyes and guilding stuff. Or even a good book to get me started that would be fantastic!
Thanks,
Charles

[prospero]

Welcome to the Dark Side Charles.

Bit of a big question...... Trouble is, everyone will give you a different answer and they'll all be correct.

Basically, you can do whatever you like as long as it doesn't rub off.

[Not your average framer]

Hi Charles,

When I got started, it was a question of neccessity and I had to produce frames to customers requirements, while using whatever I had in stock. I had just started my business, with a whole load of stock that I had bought from a business that had recently closed down. Since I was quite short of cash, it made more sense to produce what I needed, than to buy it.

As time went on, I got a bit carried away and bought lots of different paint colours, some of which never got used at all. So may I suggest that you don't spend too much at first on paints and materials that you might be thinking will come in handy one day, but instead practice your skills using leftover scraps and perhaps a few inexpensive match pot paint colours and a single tin of wax.

Don't be put off if your first effort disappoints you. Confidence comes with time and prictice. Also a lot of the enjoyment comes from the ideas, discoveries and things that you will learn along the way. I've always done a lot of experimenting and trying new ideas and this is still true today. Have you had a good look through the many threads on this forum to see examples of work posted by other framers? You may find some good ideas this way.

Don't be too worried about doing exactly the same as other framers, but try and develop your own style and techniqiues. If you can do this, you will find the process becomes much easier, more natural to you and as time goes on things will be come quite instinctive and less mechanical. Eventually you will find a natural flow in how you work and from then on you won't look back!

[vintage frames]

My advice would be to go to your local library and seek out books on wood finishing or furniture restoration. The mouldings you'll use are just wood, like furniture. Much of what is written on the web can be both confusing and often is rubbish. Strangely, I'd avoid many of the picture-framing books too!

[Not your average framer]

I can recommend a good book on wood finishing:

The complete manual of wood finishing by Frederick Oughton.

I've got the original version, written by the original author. The book is about traditional wood finishing and using traditional methods. It was written by a man who worked most of his life as a professional wood finisher and he really knew his subject. In it's original form it was recognised as the standard book on the subject and it is one of the most valued books in my book collection.

There is a later edition which has be co-authored by someone else under the pretext of bringing it up to date. I really don't like others coming along after the original author has died and thinking that it is a good thing to make money by rewritting someone else's book. I don't think that it needed rewritting.

If you want a book about modern wood finishing techniques, then I would suggest buying an authoritive book specific to the subject.

[prospero]

You could do worse foe a kick-off than getting down to your local Wickes and purchasing a tub of smooth ripple paint.



It comes in 5L tubs. Very useful as a primer and for doing washes. Only comes in white, but you can tint it with acrylic paint.

I use a lot of acrylic paints. Get the good stuff, artist's quality. I use mainly Daler-Rowney in 500ml tubs.

Useful colours....

Titanium White
Mars Black
Raw Umber
Burnt Umber
Ultramarine Blue
Hookers Green
Yellow Ochre
Raw Sienna.

You can do about 99% of finishes with these colours.

You'll need some brushes. Harris 'Easyclean' are good. Plus a few cheapo disposable ones - but natural bristle. Pound shops sometimes have them, or look on eeebay.
Wire wool in various grades.
Waxes. I use Black Bison. You only need a dark one and a clear one.
A bottle of french polish (Button grade)
Filler for smoothing grain. I use 'non-nonsense' fine surface from screwfix. Cheap and does the job.
Sanding pads. Buy them online in 100s. you'll get though a lot.Various grits. And a big roll of 80 grit paper.
A few rolls of kitchen paper and some yellow dusters and you are just about set.

As for gilding, there are lots of methods. I use powder golds bound in varnish. Depends what sort of finish you want.

[cebrooker]

Wow, thanks for such a wide range of responses. I can't wait to spend some more money that I don't have! I had a bit of a play with Liberion concentrated water based dye and was quite please with the results.

[prospero]

Wood stains/dyes are ok for polished finishes on nice wood. By nice I mean ones with an attractive grain pattern. When it comes to Obeche it's perfectly fine to do this but the results can be disappointing and not a little unpredictable. To do woody finishes on Obeche I like to do it it using a two layer paint method. A light-coloured solid basecoat with a darker diluted coat dragged over the top. Using 'earthy' tones you can get some very good effects and you don't have to worry about little flaws in the wood because you can fill them and they disappear under the paint. In short, you are in total control. It's best to leave some of the grain pores visible so it looks like wood, but you can paint on a more exotic grain pattern with a bit of practice.
I'm just doing a table top using this system. I'll post a pic when it's done. Plywood to Chippendale in one easy lesson.

[Nearlygotitright]

Thanks to all who offered help above. You answered a lot of questions I had, but had not got round to asking.