woodshop

[Turtle]

started making a stretcher from an old pine board for a canvas work. bleeding hands; sound of newly sharpened plane traveling down edge; supple shavings; pungent smell of pine; too few know it these days... looky here >>> (video to follow...processing...)

[Turtle]

Originally Posted by Turtle

started making a stretcher from an old pine board for a canvas work. bleeding hands; sound of newly sharpened plane traveling down edge; supple shavings; pungent smell of pine; too few know it these days... looky here >>> (video to follow...processing...)

Finally! A little chatter in the stroke, but my skills & the plane are a little rusty.

YouTube - planing pine

[orbsycli]

A stretcher as in HELP?!

[Turtle]

Originally Posted by orbsycli

A stretcher as in HELP?!

No. a stretcher as in the wooden frame that holds the canvas stretched tight and as used by an artist to paint on. The pre-made ones are expensive and don't come proportioned as Golden Rectangles.

I'm going for a small one about 18"x11.25" as I have a couple scraps of canvas still left. If I like my result I may borrow a table saw & make up a bunch of stock. The price of a 4'x5' stretched artists' canvas is now up to $100 US here! That's about $4 worth of canvas and $4 worth of wood. Not only can I not afford to buy a big one, I refuse to buy a big one. It is not the measure of the rule, but the skill of the tool.

[Turtle]

Originally Posted by Turtle

No. a stretcher as in the wooden frame that holds the canvas stretched tight and as used by an artist to paint on. The pre-made ones are expensive and don't come proportioned as Golden Rectangles.

the construction details of an artist's canvas stretcher differ from virtually all other wooden frames in several details.

- the face of the frame is planed back in relief so that the canvas only touches along narrow edges at the frame's outside

- the frame is not glued or nailed, rather held together at the mitered corners by either a spline & grooves, or a mortise & tenon plus grooves.

- either the main splines are tapered and extend past the grooves to the stretcher frame interior, or 4 supplemental splines are provides for later stretching.

since i have small stock and only hand tools i will use the single tapered spline method. in my next movie i will show how to hand cut the miters.

[Turtle]

my movies have yet to emerge from the aether, so while technology catches up with my handtools I have some clarifications.

in my diagram I showed the canvas stapled to the side edge of the stretcher; this is not SOP (StandardOperatingProcedure). Normally the canvas is cut large enough to wrap all sides and around onto the back face of the stretcher. Best practice is to cut narrow slots into the back face and secure the canvas in the slot with wooden wedges. Staples can rust and stain the canvas, but they speed up the actual stretching of the canvas even if the slots & wedges are used.

on the matter of the blockplane and it chattering, part of the reason is that the blockplane is not made for edge & face planing. edge & face planing is best done with a jackplane, which has a steeper blade angle and a large sole.

the blockplane, with its shallow blade angle and small sole is designed for planing endgrain. video of endgrain to follow as soon as the stargate opens.

[Turtle]

Originally Posted by Turtle

... in my next movie i will show how to hand cut the miters.

YouTube - sawing mitre

[Turtle]

Originally Posted by Turtle

...the blockplane, with its shallow blade angle and small sole is designed for planing endgrain. video of endgrain to follow as soon as the stargate opens.

this clip opens showing the new cut mitre joint slightly out of square. the correction is made by planing the mitre. planing the miter can also square it and correct an overage in length. the clip ends with the entire stretcher frame squared & loose fit.

YouTube - planing endgrain

next comes cutting the mortises that receive the splines.

[Turtle]

Originally Posted by Turtle

next comes cutting the mortises that receive the splines.

with the work clamped to the table, mark the mortise edges with a butt-gauge, clamp a saw guide to the work, and saw the shoulders. using a 1/4" chisel, the waste is cleared and the mortise sized. repeat for remaining 7 joint faces.

(video is double-speed to spare you all the sawing. )

YouTube - cutting a mortise in a mitre

[Turtle]

now with all the mortises cut, it's time to plane the relief bevel and then make the tapered splines. no more video 'til i actually stretch the canvas on, but here's an interesting scan i call 'pine plane shavings'. to the trained eye these shavings reveal either a novice worker doing who-knows-what, or a purposeful worker planing a bevel on the face of a board.

note: pine is the preferred wood for stretcher frames as the resins are compatible with oil paints, it is relatively light for its strength, and it has a closed grain. or such a matter.