The Framers Forum

Here's a frame I made recently for a gallery customer.
It was to fit a 17cent. Dutch panel painting and for this I stacked together an assemblage of three fruitwood cabinet profiles, two ogee burr veneered panels and a fine inner line of gilding.
And it all turned out rather nice. The photo is staged up for instagram, just so as to get noticed and maybe gain a few more customers.




There is always something that could have been done better when I make these frames and in this case it was a 1mm error in the width size of the inner ogee panel.
When designing or making up a frame profile like this, based on the early cabinet frames of the Dutch Golden Age, the primary design element to get right is the inner section around the frame sight edge.

This section is usually around 25mm wide and is the stand alone framing element for the whole picture.
In other words, that section alone would suffice to frame the enclosed artwork.
The rest of the frame is then built out so as to add volume and importance.

In this instance I made the inner ogee veneered panel just a bit less than 1mm, too wide.
If I had moved the central black profile section closer to the sight edge and so widened the outer veneered hollow, then that would have been, just perfect.

The trouble is when I make a frame like this I try to work first to a scaled drawing then make judgements as all the elements are being glued together and its only when all is mitred and stuck together that any flaws become apparent.

Ah well, I'm sure the customer will be happy enough.

That's a beauty! Any chance you have an end-on shot, I'd love to see how its made up.

Thank you Justin for your interest.

As we all know, Justin is probably one of the most accomplished framers here on the forum - don't blush.
Why I'm saying this is because he has an honest curiosity about the many aspects of picture -framing which are outside his current experience and knowledge.

I know what I do isn't his thing. and he has to run a business for his customers.
But I have one piece of advice for anyone expressing an inkling towards hand-finishing -
Get yourself a table saw!

You wanted to see a cross section of that frame.



The strange slots you see are guide channels I milled into the individual sections and were used to house a couple of short keys.
These positioned the individual stacked sections correctly in place whilst clamping up and gluing the profile.
A bit like a biscuit joiner.

These sort of frames can take weeks to assemble and there is only so much can be done on each working day.
A day to veneer, another to clean up or sand the veneer, mill out the fruit wood profiles, assemble and clamp, mill another section etc etc.
And then it's all the gilding and finishing stuff.

As long as someone pays me for it, then my workshop is my happy place.

Love it.


I like a bit a custom fabrication.

Thanks Dermot.
I am being more adventurous with my woodwork this week. Extended the depth of the frame and putt a bevel on it. The Bandsaw deck can tilt and cut a bevel?

I'll stain it before closing it up.

Perfect use of a band saw.
Handy things those, because there isn't as much dust kicked up as a table saw.

I still think a table saw is the way to go, though.
Not one of those skittery little table-top numbers but a decent one with legs attached.
That and a thin kerf, multi tooth 300mm dia blade will give a velvet like finish on the wood.

Facebook market-place is the place to look and a dust extractor to go.
£150 should do it.
All you need then is a new shed!