The Framers Forum

I actually threw away all of my reveal frames that were shiny - black and white. Could potentially get an order for these now. All of my other frames i touch up with the black sharpie pens, the inside edge before assembling and gluing. What would I use for shiny? So worried that I will be ordering a huge amount of mouldings having never used them before.

Can we assume that you are talking about polished high gloss lacquer style finishes as are on the surface of an automobile? You then want to camouflage the internal miter joint to darken that surface? The answer is to use a similar high gloss paint product with similar gloss properties.

If you are properly joining a painted finished or prefinished "factory furniture finish" moulding the actual joining of the joint properly will not be needed to match the cut miter surface with the outer surface finish. You can come close but not be exact.

When viewed from what us old timers said was the "3 foot rule". If you do not see any defects from viewing from a 3 feet distance, it will pass inspection.
As picture framers we can be our worst critics.

BTY, I have never heard of the term of a " reveal frame"

Thanks so much for your response. A reveal frame is the same as a tray frame/floating frame.

Reveal frame is not common parlance. Tray/floater frame much more familiar terms.

Also, Sharpie pens are notorious for the inks fading pretty quickly. That black pen mark to touch up, may quickly fade to a purple colour. Better to use proper touch up pens or Posca paint pens for colouring mitre ends and corner touch ups.