The Framers Forum

I have an old certificate to frame; no monetary, but great sentimental value. It actually belongs to my husband; it was his father's and as his mother has recently died, it has come to him. The frame was not in good condition, so the plan is that I will re-frame it. It appears to be stuck onto, or more likely printed onto card, which is about 1.2 mm thick; not good from a conservation point of view, but I can't help that. It is 375 x 480 mm and I am worried that the weight of it would be too much for T-hinges and it would, at some point, fall down inside the frame. Should I do a sink mount instead? What do people think?

Thanks

You could scan or photograph the certificate, print on archival paper and frame accordingly. I do many documents like this, some that need lots of restoring as well. If you are not able to do this I'm sure somebody close to you could.

I would sink mount it - that way it is fully secured in position and no adhesives are touching it at all and there is no danger of it slipping in the future.

Having it stuck to board actually makes life easier. Just cut a mount and lay it on top. Fine tune the alignment. Then either flip it over without it moving or hang it over the edge of the bench and mark the position with a pencil. Stick down strips of mountboard to fill the gap between the cert and the edge of the mount. Leave a tiny bit of wiggle room.
You then have a neat pocket that the cert will drop into. With a backing board on it should stay put, but I would cut a piece of mb the same size as the cert board and tape that behind. This will protrude slightly, but when the back is on this will hold the whole issue flat and no tape on the cert.

Tudor Rose wrote:
I would sink mount it - that way it is fully secured in position and no adhesives are touching it at all and there is no danger of it slipping in the future.

That's the way I would go.

Steve N wrote ....

"That's the way I would go."

Me too.

Steve N wrote:Tudor Rose wrote:
I would sink mount it - that way it is fully secured in position and no adhesives are touching it at all and there is no danger of it slipping in the future.

That's the way I would go.

Roboframer wrote:Steve N wrote ....

"That's the way I would go."

Me too.

I wrote, quotes are good

(Sorry, John)!

Something of this thickness, however fixed in place, would need to be made flush, maybe with an aperture cut out of mountboard (preferably with a 90 degree bevel...... which isn't a bevel) or with strips of mount board .... so that's still a sink mount.

Thank you all for your input!

Copying the certificate onto archival paper is something I would be happy to do - the original could then be kept in a melinex sleeve, in a safe and dark place. Trouble is, my husband wants the real thing on display, so I will go for the sink mount.

One more question - what do you all use for sealing the frame?

Thanks again

Gummed paper tape