Which Mountboard?

Mr Bojangles · Post by **Mr Bojangles** » Thu 21 Feb, 2008 8:49 pm

Hi all

As i'm just starting framing i would apreciate any reccomendations on mountboard.
I want to frame some of my photographs but cant decide on which manufacturer of mountboard to use.
I'm currently looking at Daler and Colourmount from the Lion catalogue.

Cheers

Gary

Spit · Post by **Spit** » Thu 21 Feb, 2008 8:53 pm

Try the colourmount 300 series boards - minimum acid free, most light colours are conservation grade, not too pricey, good range. It's my basic framing board.

kev@frames · Post by **kev@frames** » Thu 21 Feb, 2008 8:58 pm

Spit wrote:Try the colourmount 300 series boards - minimum acid free, most light colours are conservation grade, not too pricey, good range. It's my basic framing board.

same here, or arquadia. Depends if your chosen supplier is a colourmount stockist or not. But we have been very happy with Colourmount for almost 15 years. Arquadia is fine as well, and well known to the public.

osgood · Post by **osgood** » Thu 21 Feb, 2008 8:59 pm

Alphamat is my standard mat.
Preservation quality and contains active zeolytes to absorb harmful gases!
I do not know of any mat that is better quality!

Roboframer · Post by **Roboframer** » Thu 21 Feb, 2008 9:07 pm

What Ormond said - Alphamat artcare by Nielsen-Bainbridge.

Plus a great range of colours and some interesting finishes like rice paper, leather etc. Matches the prices (at least) and spec of its competition without the microchamber/zeolite technology.

Mr Bojangles · Post by **Mr Bojangles** » Thu 21 Feb, 2008 9:25 pm

Thanks for all the information. Now its time to do some research on which suppliers.

Weston Super Frames · Post by **Weston Super Frames** » Thu 21 Feb, 2008 9:26 pm

We use Colourmount - large choice of colours and there standard board really is good enough for 95% of the jobs that come into my shop.

Roboframer · Post by **Roboframer** » Thu 21 Feb, 2008 9:39 pm

Standard board may well be good enough for some jobs - but it would never be good enough for any of my frames.

Some suppliers like Nielsen & Arqadia dropped standard board years ago.

Having a good quality default board simplifies things, especially storage and covers your proverbial butt.

Grahame Case · Post by **Grahame Case** » Thu 21 Feb, 2008 9:42 pm

we use Alphamat Artcare as our standard board- thinking of expanding our range of boards to encompass the whole Bainbridge range- once we have sorted out our new CMC and storage arrangements.

Post by **John** » Thu 21 Feb, 2008 10:13 pm

Daler Conservation, while being a dense board, cuts very cleanly and smoothly, and is very easy on blades. It has preservation qualities well in excess of that required by almost everything that I frame.

David · Post by **David** » Thu 21 Feb, 2008 10:20 pm

Hi Mr Bojangles

I use the bainbridge alphamat as our standard board, I've been using it for years and occasionally use other boards for special finishes, but wouldn't recommend anything else.

David.

Not your average framer · Thu 21 Feb, 2008 11:07 pm

I offer mainly Neilsen Bainbridge, whitecore, conservation and museum grades, but I also use Colourmount, Arqadia and Crescent. Still have some packs of Daler and Tru-vue left from a few years ago.

Neilsen Bainbridge is the favorite, but Arqadia have a very nice gold in whitecore which is very popular with my customers. Also Arqadia suede boards look really stunning. Crescent suede are also equally stunning, they are more expensive than Arqadia, but have a much larger range of colours.

I keep display chevrons of every mountboard I can get. It pays off, as I often get asked to match something a customer had done elsewhere. Neilsen Bainbridge's whitecore is quite helpful being 48" long and it's very competitively priced.

Simons Key range whitecore (Colourmount) is a good deal at £2 a sheet for 40 sheets (in 10 sheet packs) and we use it where cost is an issue. I'm thinking of making more use of this in the future.

Neilsen Bainbridge and Crescent have very extensive colour ranges.

Roboframer · Post by **Roboframer** » Thu 21 Feb, 2008 11:19 pm

Not your average framer wrote:
Simons Key range whitecore (Colourmount) is a good deal at £2 a sheet for 40 sheets (in 10 sheet packs) and we use it where cost is an issue. I'm thinking of making more use of this in the future.

I tried this board, a long time ago, it's not nice.

The darker colours faded very very quickly and the off whites, well, they went darker! When taken out of the frame, the part left concealed under the 'lip' of the frame was lighter.

The surface papers are carp!

When cost is an issue here there are a few options.

1. Decrease the size (mount margin)
2. Downgrade the moulding.
3. Have a 'Ready-made-to-order'

4. 'You're in the wrong shop'

Not your average framer · Thu 21 Feb, 2008 11:32 pm

Hi John,

I agree, but I sell it to customers and artists who do their own home framing or come in with Ikea frames and also various cheapskates who don't want to pay my normal mount prices. They know what they are getting, I tell them. They don't want good, they want cheap!

Roboframer · Post by **Roboframer** » Fri 22 Feb, 2008 12:09 am

Ah - You'd be No 4 then

I have a BMW dealership next door, and one mile North I have a local garage - sales of used cars, spares & repair.

Once I took a Renault 21 to the local garage - I'd bought it from them - the 3 speed fan had gone.

They gave me two options -

1.. They order and fit the bit that had gone - £180.

2. They bypass the lot and fit an ugly 'on/off' switch giving me one speed - (maximum) - £30.

It was a bit of a banger - I went for option No2.

I did something similar myself once on an Austin Allegro - only for the engine cooling fan - two bits of wire on a clothes peg with a piece of carboard between its jaws - gauge heads towards red - remove cardboard!

The BMW garage (had it been an old banger BMW) probably would not have entertained me - they'd have just offered to scrap the whole car, as long as I bought a new one - their second option would be 'go somewhere else'

I don't want to sound snobbish (I am a snob - don't get me wrong - just don't want to sound it) But anyone coming under the category of not wanting to pay my normal prices need to realise, and quickly, that they maybe should have gone elsewhere.

Post by **prospero** » Fri 22 Feb, 2008 12:13 am

That's the spirit.

Chuck another peasant on the fire.

Not your average framer · Fri 22 Feb, 2008 10:26 am

Roboframer wrote:anyone coming under the category of not wanting to pay my normal prices need to realise, and quickly, that they maybe should have gone elsewhere.

But if they came in ready to spend money, I like to help if I can!

Steve N · Post by **Steve N** » Tue 26 Feb, 2008 2:46 pm

Hi Guys & Gals,

I see from the postings quite a few of you use Colourmount mountboards do any of you have any problems with the storage of Colourmount, we use the 300 range, ours always seem to bend, giving us problems feeding into and cutting on the Fletcther 3100 wall cutter ( the trouble we have with the Black and other dark colours marking

) and then on Valiani, sometimes they are so bent that when we place them on the Valiani they misaligned under the clamps, so they are not square. we store them on their sides (along the 120cm side ) like some of you do, as in the other postings about mountboard storage and the units you have made, where a few of you posted photos of your under bench storage.
I'm just intrested to know if any of you JGF's have the same problems.

Steve N

Post by **prospero** » Tue 26 Feb, 2008 4:10 pm

Over the years I have used just about every range on the market. The only one I do dislike is.....errr.. Colourmount. Now I may be doing SH an injustice as it may have improved since I last used it, but I found the core very 'crumbly' on std range. The first lot of 'consevation' grade I had had a habit of delaminating and was very curly.

Daler board is better than SH in the std range. So was Arqadia, but they don't do std boards any more.

I agree with Robo re Alphamat. For everday stuff the Brittania range is good to work with and has some nice colours/textures.

Going off slightly on a tangent:

I'm sure we all love nice white bevels that stay white.

But there are things that just don't look right with a white bevel. I'm thinking 'old' stuff where the paper has darkened or 'mellowed' with age. I used a lot of Arqadia 623 (Lemon) in the past. The facing paper is just the right shade of ivory with a delicate fleck. Looks great on old engravings and watercolurs and takes washlines very well. The bevel was the same shade as the surface, which looked very classy. Not pukka presevation standard, but good enough for items of not great value and at least the bevel does not turn orange. Nowdays this board is only available in whitecore, which just not look right with a blinding white bevel. Be nice if some of the cream/ivory shades were available in consevation quality but with a non-white bevel.

*Crescent do a (small) range of rag boards with a creamy core. Think its about £8 a sheet (US sized sheet that is.

).

osgood · Post by **osgood** » Tue 26 Feb, 2008 7:20 pm

If you don't like white bevels on some things, you could use the Bainbridge Rags. The core is the same colour as the surface paper.
I have attended a couple of classes by Tim Franer, who uses these mats almost exculsively.