The process of going from a raw piece of wood, in this case a 6/4 piece of Basswood; to create a picture frame is a challenge that always excites me. The picture on the left shows the beginnings, hand planing the edge to create a smooth and square surface to begin with after surfacing the faces. Many times the width of the material will determine the size of the frame. For this one, the piece was about 11″ wide which allowed me to rip 4 pieces for the panels at 2 5/8″.
The style of this frame lets me use 3/4″ thick material to make a frame that will accommodate a 3/4″ stretched canvas painting.
The frame is made using a combination of hand tools and tablesaw.
I prefer the quietness of hand tools to the noise of power tools. If I’m only doing one frame my preference is to use a rabbet plane for the rabbet and the tongue in the outer cap and a small plow plane to form the groove joint that joins the panel section to the outside cap. I did use a small router bit to cut the chamfer on the outer edge of the outside cap.
Forming the sight edge was fun! I started with a small single bead scratched into the stock with a Lie-Nielsen, #66 bronze beading tool. Once the bead is done the chamfered edge is cut on the table saw at 15°, you have to carefully sneak up on the bead and make sure the blade doesn’t cut into it. I’ll touch it up with a small rabbet plane if needed.
Assembly is pretty straight forward, I always use biscuits on the miters and clamp overnight after glue up. The outer cap is mitered and also glued and clamped to the frame. The pallet for this painting had blues and greens so for the finish I first used a grey burnisher/sealer but tinted it a light shade of green with Mixol. The final finish is Japan black which I like to burnish with a cotton rag tightly wrapped around my finger about 1-2 hours after applying it. The reason I do that is to bring a slight sheen to the normal flat finish of the Japan and also remove some of it to show the green base coat and replicate some age to the frame.
This is the final results of this frame. The painting is titled Greener Pastures and is by my wife, Diane Eugster. It is a 24″ square canvas and oil medium.
