How do you get scratches

[Jamesnkr]

Factory-finished moulding often has parallel scratches. How does one reproduce them?

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[vintage frames]

As all factory mouldings are produced on a continuous running length. I'd imagine the scratches are made by a rotating combing wheel, as with other effects. Reproducing it on a hand finished moulding could be a bit tricky, as the effect depends on the combed lines being parallel all along the moulding length. I suppose you could make up some sort of a jig and use a wire brush with the wires carefully selected.
Why do you want to do that anyway?

[Jamesnkr]

Why do you want to do that anyway?

I don't really. I just wondered - because I was asked to make a frame to be like a frame made from a factory-finished moulding and so looking at the factory moulding I wondered how it had been made.

[vintage frames]

Ahh - And I was just thinking about it; when you make a hand-finished frame, you tend to make the frame first and then add the finishes. How do you scratch into the corners? Mind you, you could experiment with a scrubbing brush with many of the bristles removed and shortened and run this over the gilding when still soft - ie use an acrylic size that doesn't dry hard.
But good luck with it all.

[prospero]

That sort of linear scratching is very familiar on factory moulding. So much so that you tend to accept it as
'normal'. In fact it's quite phoney as on a handfinished frame the scratches wouldn't go so neatly into the corners.

If I do this type of thing I would use brushed on gilt varnish rather than leaf. That allows you to do the scratches while the
varnish is wet by cunning use of a dry brush. You can get into the corners but not as neatly as you would by finishing the
moulding first and then chopping.

But to my mind a slight variation in the corners makes for a better looking frame.

[Jamesnkr]

This is what I did instead. (New Year's resolutions (a) make some frames as I haven't for weeks; (b) be more creative with paint).

Looks absolutely nothing like the original (which means I got to reframe that too ).

On R&H's A251 in pine. Never again; what's the point in a 6mm rebate?! Anyway the frames are more valuable than the prints so no concession to conservation nonsense. They look much better without mounts anyway.

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