Question Cleaning old durty frames

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Grey Owl

Grey Owl

SGF, Supreme Grumble Framer
Joined
Nov 2, 2007
Posts
2,618
Loc
Lakewood, CO
I have a customer that brought in an old 1915 to1920's gold colored (not leaf) frame and wanted to know if I could clean it up. It has a photo of his grandparents on their wedding. The matting is bad / dis-colored and I will redo the mats, mounts, and glass. His sister sent it to him, and there is lots of dirt and grime on the frame. A few places with wear down to the bole.

The actual frame is in good condition, eg wood okay, corners okay, etc.

Any ideas?

I'm working on the another job for him and I said I would look at it and see what I can do... I said I would keep the clean up price down to around an hour of labor; Not intending to fix the worn areas, just clean off the dirt and grime.

thanks
 
If this is a commercial frame, you can try a barely damp cloth, or one with mineral spirits (paint thinner) and see what comes off. Naturally, go easy in case it looks like finish is coming off, but this frame sounds like a low-risk project.

Joseph
 
I would start with a vacuuming using the brush attachment carefully to remove the loose dust and "schmutz", followed by a gentle cleaning as Joseph described, but I would use a cloth dampened with a mild solution of a little Dawn, experimenting first on an inconspicuous area of the frame.
:cool: Rick
 
I just did a huge lot of these.... old, dusty ...aaaccck.... aaachhhhooo.......

Water and Dawn soap... not a sopping wet rag.... wring it out really well first....
Kinda like a sponge bath......... :popc:
 
Experiment in an inconspicuous spot, as there were some frames that had water gilt gold highlights and then the body of the frame painted. Dawn and water will take the gold right off. Sometimes frames were regilt with gold paint, obscuring the true finish.

For myself, water and Dawn, would be way down on my list of things to try. Mineral spirits, or naptha, because of it's fast drying would be even better. Acetone and lacquer thinner will remove overpaint.
 
My first tactic would be a once-over with an old dry toothbrush, then vacuum, then Q-tips or cotton balls and good old fashioned spit.

Unless the frame was huge - easy to run out of spit in that case...
 
Spit is a rather benign enzyme cleaner. Some things that don't come off with the other recommendations may very well come of with it. Smooth the spit so all areas are covered and let the spit gel up for a couple minutes then use q-tips, cotton swabs or the like and wipe in a circular motion hitherto unknown to this galaxy. (with apologizes to Frank Zappa)

Who could imagine?
 
Framing,

Thanks for the tip about Vulpex soap. That it can be thinned with mineral spirits for a non-aqueous cleanser is important on frames, that water gilt gold thing. Older frames and much antique furniture had shellac based finishes, which can be harmed by water, so, again, be very careful with water based solutions.

It is available here in the states though Shellac.net and other places as well. Google is your friend.
 
As someone who spends not inconsiderable time muckying up new frames, I'd say swap them the old frame for a nice shinny new one and keep it. Some folks go bananas for genuine old manky frames.
 
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