The Framers Forum

The mountboard sample chosen by the customer was Crescent 3340 Manor White. It was smooth board, chosen to contrast with the heavily textured paper on which the art is painted. So I ordered the board, but what has arrived is a textured board. Both the sample and the board carry the official number and name.

Has anyone else got this board to check whether you've got smooth or textured? I don't know whether they've changed the specification but kept the name/number ( ) or whether the wrong label was put on the sample, or the wrong stamp on this batch of board.

I'm not familiar with Crescent boards but I would have thought your first recourse would be to contact your supplier and see what they say !

Of course I'll contact my supplier.

But if anyone has got this board, please share whether you've got smooth or textured.

Apart from myself wanting to know, it might alert other people to a potential problem if they're about to order it.

It's nice to think the materials we buy are 'set in stone'. The truth is that manufacturers are subject to quirks in the supply
chain like everybody else and have to alter things now and then. Annoying, but that's life.
A heads-up from the wholesalers would not go amiss now and then....

I cant answer your question, but can throw a little light about the huge difficulties mount board mfgs experience trying to get the facing papers the same from one batch to another.

As Crescent are in the USA they will be using USA mills for supplies of facing papers.

Here is something written by the CEO of Peterboro a Canadian mount board mfg which explains it rather well >>>.

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The paper industry continues to retract and the choices we have for matboard surface papers are alarmingly small. Since I have come to Peterboro I have watched one paper company after another close their doors. Since the mid 90's over 150 boutique paper mills have closed their doors or been swallowed by mega mills. We are left with only 3 mills in all of North America that will even consider using pigments for the matboard industry and some will not run dark colours because of the cost of clean-up before the next run. Dyes are cheaper, easier, and the excess paper and trim can be easily recycled which is not the case with pigments. They require special equipment, chemistry and training which most small mills don't have or can't invest in. The next time your matboard is a little off colour please remember that we matboard producers need to pick our battles wisely with the mills. If we complain too much they will not make paper for us because the matboard industry is a small niche in the world of paper making. The above notice is about the closing this week of the Whiting mill a large supplier to the matboard industry. They stopped making paper for us 10 years ago because they said I complained too much!!
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So whilst that may help to explain colour variations, it does not answer your question as to why its changed from a smooth board, to one heavily textured. Only Wessex and Crescent can answer that. My gut feeling is the mill have used the wrong facing paper,

That's very interesting, Keith, thanks for that.

At a roadshow earlier this year I was talking to the Crescent representative and he said that they have a huge warehouse out in the 'mid-west' where they store supplies of all discontinued mountboards for 5 years. He said this was for litigation reasons as it is cheaper than fighting in court against someone who is unable to get further boards that they had recently purchased (my phrasing).

Hi Rainbow
Just curious to hear what the supplier said about the discrepancy between the sample and board supplied, feedback is quite useful.

Time to cut a new sample, so you will not have a problem in the future
But it is a PITA when this happens

I don't use Crescent a the sheets are too small (well last time I checked they were)

It seems I’m the only forum member who uses that particular mountboard, which is a shame as I’d hoped in posting that more information could be gathered in order to help the manufacturer work out what had happened.
Thanks for the replies anyway

Just wondering......

Was the sample supplied by Wessex, they could have had that set of samples for years, so may not be to the same spec as current boards

Is this the first time you have ordered this board, again the specs could have changed since the samples were sent out

Steve N wrote: Is this the first time you have ordered this board, again the specs could have changed since the samples were sent out

Yes it is Steve, and it's certainly possible that the spec has changed since I got my sample 3 years ago. It's still a shame though, if that's the case, that they didn't change the number/name Still, I've made the supplier aware of it and it's up to them what (if anything) they do about it

PS. Forgot to say - the current sample which I've now got, is in fact textured.

It could be a numbering problem, a couple of years ago, maybe more, I got a pack of Arqadia's 8017 Moorland Green, it had that number on, it wasn't until I went to use it again a few months later I noticed that it was in fact 8034 Sage, I had a chat with the rep, who said they had now found out the whole batch had been miss-numbered, I just renumbered the pack and sold it off cheep to a camera club

have you got any other mountcard supplier's colour charts, perhaps you can find the colour or very near match made by someone else

Yes it's done, dusted, delivered, on the wall and thrilled thank-you note received from said customer!

Just had another thought, maybe the sample you had may of had the wrong number on it .........