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- droj
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I decided to re-frame some prints recently. They're 23-year old Fuji C-types, and they've held up well with no sign of fading, hung indoors but obviously out of direct sunlight. Well you wouldn't do that, would you?
So I machined some seasoned wood to a simple frame section. Now I wasn't about to buy even a foot-operated Morso (about £2,500 new) to trim the mitres. I used my chop saw (of worthy make and well adjusted) with a negative-rake multi-tooth blade. So far so good.
My scheme was then to slot the mitres and connect them with glued splines. When hung, the mitres carry the weight of the frame content, so have a certain strength requirement. This I did. The splines are visible on the outside of the frames, and I used a different wood to that of the frames, to make them explicit - a 'feature'.
Given that I already had the prints in mounts along with backing boards from the old frames, that was more or less it.
But being enthused, I decided to carry on and make some more frames, get more prints done in pigment ink on Hahnemuhle paper and frame them.
Which meant that I'd need mounts and other stuff. I'd previously cut a few mount apertures at 90 degrees with a Stanley knife, but the process didn't really cut the mustard. So I needed a mount cutter. What to get? A Logan (c £150 and up) or a Longridge (c £250 and up)? There wasn't much (used) on eBay with a decent cut-length or a good price and a courier option. But hang on. They come attached to a backing board. Maybe I can do without that, or make my own.
So I found a Logan guide rule (just over a metre, with cutter head & 5 blades) new for about 65 quid.
It's fine, it's good. I'm not setting up a commercial framing shop. I'll attach it to a baseboard of 18mm birch ply as a portable cutting station.
Longridge blades (held to be superior) will fit in the Logan holder. So a pack of those. Next - mountboard - thousands of choices! Ok - Arqadia - a quiet white. Conservation grade.
And having nowhere sensible to store uncut glass, I'll get a small stack of nothing more exotic than 2mm float cut to measure for my frames. Museum glass being a great fantasy but way beyond my budget.
Tape to hang the picture in the mount - Abaca self adhesive. Not cheap but 45m will go a long way.
So here we go - the show is on the road.
So I machined some seasoned wood to a simple frame section. Now I wasn't about to buy even a foot-operated Morso (about £2,500 new) to trim the mitres. I used my chop saw (of worthy make and well adjusted) with a negative-rake multi-tooth blade. So far so good.
My scheme was then to slot the mitres and connect them with glued splines. When hung, the mitres carry the weight of the frame content, so have a certain strength requirement. This I did. The splines are visible on the outside of the frames, and I used a different wood to that of the frames, to make them explicit - a 'feature'.
Given that I already had the prints in mounts along with backing boards from the old frames, that was more or less it.
But being enthused, I decided to carry on and make some more frames, get more prints done in pigment ink on Hahnemuhle paper and frame them.
Which meant that I'd need mounts and other stuff. I'd previously cut a few mount apertures at 90 degrees with a Stanley knife, but the process didn't really cut the mustard. So I needed a mount cutter. What to get? A Logan (c £150 and up) or a Longridge (c £250 and up)? There wasn't much (used) on eBay with a decent cut-length or a good price and a courier option. But hang on. They come attached to a backing board. Maybe I can do without that, or make my own.
So I found a Logan guide rule (just over a metre, with cutter head & 5 blades) new for about 65 quid.
It's fine, it's good. I'm not setting up a commercial framing shop. I'll attach it to a baseboard of 18mm birch ply as a portable cutting station.
Longridge blades (held to be superior) will fit in the Logan holder. So a pack of those. Next - mountboard - thousands of choices! Ok - Arqadia - a quiet white. Conservation grade.
And having nowhere sensible to store uncut glass, I'll get a small stack of nothing more exotic than 2mm float cut to measure for my frames. Museum glass being a great fantasy but way beyond my budget.
Tape to hang the picture in the mount - Abaca self adhesive. Not cheap but 45m will go a long way.
So here we go - the show is on the road.
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