The Framers Forum

Perhaps a little known trick, but I'll bet a few others know it too! Have you noticed that dark mount board even when it's straight out of the pack often has minor surface effects which show up far more than they ever would on lighter colours.

I get around such problems by dampening the surface with a wet tissue and drying it immediately with a heat gun. The result is a very uniform matt finish - problem solved.

Brilliant!

I'm going to try this first thing tomorrow!

Many thanks

I'm going to try it just after John has - Ive got a big sheet of dark green board sitting on my bench with a big shiny scuff on it - straight out of the pack.

Can't say I've had the problem often and if I had, I'd use the same tried and tested method that I would use on the lighter colours.

The phone!

I don't need procedures that could double the time of a frame job if they are to rectify problems that are not self inflicted.

Still, thanks for that tip Mark - I have plenty of self inflicted!

The trick is to get the surface paper really wet and dry it very quickly before it soaks into the core of the mountboard. You must wet and dry the whole mount surface in one go to avoid the dark ring around where it got wet effect. Use the heat gun on it's hotest setting and keep it moving rapidly over the whole area.

Are you having this problem on artcare boards Mark?

The non-"vellum" boards don't like water - some of the vellums don't either - they are un-sized - or not very well sized! Sponges.

markw wrote:I'm going to try it just after John has - Ive got a big sheet of dark green board sitting on my bench with a big shiny scuff on it - straight out of the pack.

Big shinny scuff? Depends on how badly scuffed, it does not reverse actual damage, but it does make shinny marks go to a matt finish again.

Roboframer wrote:Are you having this problem on artcare boards Mark?

No mainly white-core. We've still got a lot of white-core in stock and a particular favorite is Bainbridge "Black brown" which will easily show even the very slightest mark. Using this procedure to remove these marks is very quick to do.

You're a shiny Mark, Mark

I find that steam is good. A good steam iron held close to the surface of the mat, but not touching the problem area will often work on Alphamat.

I have also lightly dragged a damp cloth across the surface, with the hot iron lightly touching the rag, with some success.

Wetting the surface of Alphamat is fraught with danger and you might as well just throw the piece in the rubbish bin and save yourself some time!

osgood wrote: Wetting the surface of Alphamat is fraught with danger and you might as well just throw the piece in the rubbish bin and save yourself some time!

Hi Ormond,

I haven't tried it with Alphamat, so I can't comment, but I would be concerned about doing this with Alphamat, because I don't know it would adversely affect the Zeolites.

P.S. John & Markw. Anyone tried it yet?