Oak Fillet

[The Shed Worker]

Hi collective. Does anyone in the UK supply oak fillets (not slips)? Customer picture currently has a gold rim with a gold fillet between the mount and the picture. They want both to be replaced with light oak - but none of my suppliers have a matching set. Any ideas? Thanks!

[Not your average framer]

An interesting idea, but as far as I am aware, Oak fillets do not exist as a comercially available item. Do you have a suitable table saw, if so it might be worth considering cutting an old Oak picture framing into a number of Oak fillets. It is a lot easier to cut a wider moulding into a number of fillets, than to do the same with a narrower moulding, as a more rigid moulding does not so easily flex while cutting on the table saw and cutting pieces off from a wider piece is also a lot safer than cutting up a much narrower moulding. Unfortunately, there are limitations with how narrow it is wise to allow the width of the moulding to be reduced to and to consider continued to cut further narrow section from what is still left.

I do not have a planer thickness and therefore I find my self limited to using a belt sander to remove and saw marks from sections of Oak which I has cut on the table saw, but with care this works reasonable well. I do have a surface planner, but I choose not to run Oak through thia as I don't want to blunt the blades to quickly. From time to time, I need to make up slip, fillets and spacers from various different left over bits, or scraps of moulding. I like to do this on my band saw, which leaves almost no noticable saw marks in softer woods and only needs a few strokes with a sandpaper block to get a nice smooth finish. This works very well with Obeche and if I am using off cuts and scraps, this is a very cost effective way of producing such items.

[The Shed Worker]

Thanks for the response. Rather pleased that you are not aware of any - it reassures me that my search was not a failure! ~Unfortunately I do not have a table saw (and it's a small workshop) so I think I'm going to get the customer to go with a complete redesign. I have so many options for them to choose from I'm sure we can find something - even in these days of 'out of stock until...'

[GeoSpectrum]

What profile is a fillet? Is oak strip wood suitable?

[prospero]

I've never seen such a thing. It maybe could be made by some skilled person with the necessary kit, but I would
think that maybe it would be quite difficult as it hard and a bit splintery. veeeeeeeeeery expensive.

I would use an Obeche/Ayous fillet of which Rose&Hollis have a few and stain/paint it the right colour. Having said
that, something that nearly matches often looks worse than something completely different.

Customers get fanciful ideas.

[Justintime]

Is there nothing in the Rose and Hollis catalogue that you could get someone to cut down for you? Like a PW303 or SW9751? assuming that SL1 and SL2 are too small?

[Not your average framer]

Cuttin down Oak and getting a really nice finish on it, is not always quick, simple and easy. Not all bits of Oak also cut as nicely as you might be hoping! I've only got a relatively small Band saw, so rip cutting Oak can be a longer, slower proccss and not always very easy to do.

[Justintime]

I was suggesting cutting down a moulding Mark, so the cut would only be the underneath of the fillet.

[Not your average framer]

Yes Justin,

I understood that. I was thinking about rip cutting a nice wide and easier to safely handle a proper Oak picture framing moulding on a table saw. The problem then is sanding down the cut sufaces to remove as saw marks, to get a nice clean and smooth finish. I dont find this always easy by hand, but fortunately for me, I already have a belt sander, which is a much easier way to do stuff like this!

[Not your average framer]

If you have areasonably decent table saw, Rose and Hollis have a reasonably chunky Oak fillet, it is F8 (Oak), which is 12mm x 47mm. Must rip cutting blades for table saws are 3mm wide some ripping the 12mm down the middle will result in two pieces of 4.4mm thick and ripping the 47mm down the middle will result in two pieces of 22mm thick. An under powered table saw may struggle to do this and if you are you used to using a table saw for cutting difficult things, this may be too difficult for some people. Cutting this fillet down the middle still leaves enough untouched outer faces to leave visible inside the frame.

Personally, I would prefer to stain and wash an obeche Fillet, instead of making an oak fillet, because it is a lot less difficulty! Given the choice, I will often take the easy way out when the choice presents itself.