The Framers Forum

I suppose you could devise some sort of cradle to support the wood as it comes out of the saw. And maybe just over-size the lengths by 2 or 3 inches so that you can cut off the faulty bit at the ends.

It sounds like what you've got is a selection of hand-held powered tools so dust extraction should be fairly straight forward. Get a Henry vac and buy a very long hose for it - not the Henry type hose but one that's meant for hand held machine tools, ie Amazon, E-bay or Axminster tools. What you don...

Doesn't nobody not read newspapers no more?

No, I don't have any coated glass at the moment. I would expect it to be OK but can appreciate how nervous anyone would be testing it on speciality glass.
Maybe someone else can give it a go on an off-cut.

What else is one to do with all the read copies of the Sun and Daily Sport?

For years, my chosen method of cleaning glass was two cotton cloths, one for cleaning with a squirt of whatever glass cleaner, then a second squirt and polish with the other dry cloth. All very well, except when the cloth gets too wet and all fouled up. Now I've discovered that a scrunched-up roll o...

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Thank you again everyone for your comments - especially those who actually read and understood what I was saying.

Thank you 'bookmark' for your kind comments. The frame Prospero shows is a painted effect frame where he has, quite successfully, mimicked the appearance of a birds-eye maple picture frame. On a real birds-eye maple frame, as shown in some of my examples, the mitres would be closed but quite visible...

Have you ever wondered how you could make frames to look like these? Fullscreen capture 12062022 113716 AM.bmp.jpg Fullscreen capture 12062022 30717 PM.bmp.jpg This is a little essay to examine some of the science involved in creating the same sort of finish on bare-wood mouldings. We humans tend to...

That is just - very clever.

All I ever use is 1/2" panel pins knocked in with a pin hammer.
They look quite authentic when rusted up a bit.
Unless you're doing dozens of frames a day, maybe you don't need a tab gun yet.

It looks like some sort of staple and it also looks pretty modern.
I'm suggesting it might be Italian in origin.
I know you want to replicate as 'vintage' as possible but the frame itself also looks pretty modern?

A belt sander will shift all that old varnish. You could get one for around £50.

You're going off-piste again talking about a Festool Jointer. There's £600 -£700 just to join a few decorative corners.
What's wrong with 2 x band clamps and a bottle of good wood glue?

Hello and welcome to this forum. I'm a bit suspicious of the provenance of these art works. Two things would worry me. I'm judging from the photos that the backing board appears to be a cheap pre-war cardboard, and - Items that have a genuine provenance and value rarely declare the date in such an o...

Mark - this is bonkers! Why do you need to complicate life like this? All these modern paints, emulsions, chalk paints etc, they're all 'plasticlty' and will give all sorts of grief when trying to sand smooth. If you want a simple and cheap grain-fill primer then use what I've already told you to. P...

I'm still going to disagree with you Mark. You're never too old to learn new skills. It's what keeps our brains feeling fresh and young. I know you're doing the best with some physical difficulties and I imagine volume isn't really where you'd want to be looking, so i don't see why you can't take ti...

I can see why you want to use it. I don't see why you should use it. Another modern product that allows the user to think they can leap-frog over the finishing skills that craftsmen require to produce the most beautiful of finishes. People can use it and be delighted with the results but they need t...

As Mark says, you can mix wax into nearly all paints and finishes. Wax is often added to artists varnishes in order to create a soft matt effect and when mixed into acrylics, can produce all sorts of painting effects. Painting a varnish over wax can be done but as Justintime suggests, can create a v...

If you ever get the time, try mixing the whiting with dilute PVA - 1:1 with water, then 1:1 with whiting.
It will need passing through a paint filter too but will be much easier to sand than using the commercial paints.

What you want is some sort of paint that gives a clean white coating but doesn't clog up the grain. All commercial 'white' paints contain the basic white pigment and a load of extenders and fillers which bulk up the paint and create that grain fill problem. The simple reason is that the pigment is t...