Wood Frames

Wood frames are absolutely everywhere you look! You’ll find both lightly stained, very darkly stained and completely natural wood frames in almost any store you happen to be looking in. If you’re asking “What in the heck is the difference?”, then you more than likely haven’t done any woodworking or refinished any furniture recently. Another possibility is that it really doesn’t make any difference to you whether the wood frames  you are looking at is stained with a light or dark stain. Most wood frames are built very sturdily, as they are meant to last a good many years.

“How can I find out what kinds of wood that the wood frames I’m looking at are made from?” is the question a friend of mine asked recently. “I’m not really sure that you’d be able to find that out for sure. One suggestion I can give you is to flip to frame over and look on the back… you might be able to tell from that, but then again… you might not. Another option is to ask someone who works in the stores’ frame department if they can tell you what kind s of wood the wood frames that you are looking at are made from.

From what I know, the most common types of wood are Oak, Pine, Maple, Cedar and Cherry. All of these are hardwoods that are the best and most common choices of woodworkers because of their sturdiness. Wood frames made from Cedar smell very sweet… if you’ve ever had Cedar Moth blocks or balls, then you know what I’m saying. Many wood frames are very simply carved, though I have seen some that are very ornately carved.

Have you ever noticed the design work… how most wood frames look? Ever thought about how they’re made like that? Most of the time those pieces of frame moulding are machine made, cut and sanded to exacting measurements and specifications. These refer to the length, width and height as well as any curvature (carving) that are required to make each piece. No doubt you’ve seen some wood frames in which the moulding pieces are only ¼ inch wide, and yet I have also seen some that are 3 inches wide.

There’s another area of wood frames that I’d like to talk about right now… and that is custom made frames. If you are in the market to have a frame custom made, then you’re in luck when it comes to being able to find out what kinds of wood that he’s using. You might even be lucky enough to find custom frame maker who hand-carves all of the moulding pieces that they use to make those wood frames.  There’s one way that you will know what type of wood is being used in your frame.

It’s pretty fun to finish those natural, unfinished wood frames yourself too. Even if you aren’t very handy with tools or a paintbrush, you can still use either light or dark wood stain or polyurethane to give that frame your own personal finishing touches. All you really need is the stain (or polyurethane), a narrow paintbrush, the frame you’re working on and some newspaper or old cloth (to put on your work surface).