What causes glass to etch on inside of frame

Create a Post
kuluchicken

kuluchicken

MGF, Master Grumble Framer
Joined
Apr 2, 2012
Posts
564
Loc
Auckland, New Zealand
I've just opened up some framing I'm redoing for someone. The inside of the glass. away from the mat board is hazy and there is a definite line where the mat board opening was. I've seen it many times before, but was just wondering exactly what causes it. I would have thought that with a good glass cleaner one could remove this, but it seems to be etched in permanently.
Could someone please explain exactly why this happens.
Thanks
Michele
 
offgassing.
I have seen it with fresh ink jets prints framed straight after printing.
Although not always etching permanently, i would image it would take a bit longer to permanently etch
 
I've seen this effect with certain matboards where they appear to 'sweat' and leave a blotchy pattern on the inside of the glass. Never seen this come off a print. Cleaned one yesterday as it happens. The fact that it marks the glass permanently is a bit alarming. Was it coated glass?
 
We've seen this quite often when reframing/reglazing older pieces of artwork and we keep an example in the workshop to show people. You can clearly see all the details of the image that was in the frame showing on the glass. We understood it to be caused by photo-transference, but the exact science of that I'm not too sure about to be able to give details.
 
I have seen this largly with ink from etchings lithographs stencil prints and new oils off gassing. light heat polution time all play a part, possibly reacting with resedue of amonia on glass as well from who knows what cleaner. I ve never seen it perminant but may take some work to clean the glass. time to change to AR glass, the difference will be amazing.
 
Thanks for all the responses, much appreciated.

It's just regular 2mm glass, not coated at all. The image is just a print, the mount board is a cheap and nasty.

I do glass etching as well, so I have pretty potent glass cleaners used to recondition glass in a bad way, but the inside haziness remained as well as the line from the mat board cut. I found it pretty strange that it was a permanent etch. I've normally always replaced the glass in the past because it's always been scratched, but this glass was fine...and the guy always pushes for price, so I thought I'd try to clean it.
 
Our experience of this is when it is quite a distinct image on the glass then no amount of cleaning will get rid of it permanently, a shadowing of it always seems to remain. So it seems to be the same experience you are having.
 
I have seen Off Gassing on lots of different antique pieces. I have taken apart stitcheries and seen a reverse image of the stitchery on the inside of the glass. (Inside the frame, not in the glass itself. Duh.) I have seen it on prints, photos, fabrics... all sorts of things. The image is created by moisture and heat. The colors of the framed item reflect different amounts of heat, creating different amounts of moisture on the inside of the frame package. The earlier you can get to the package, and open it up, the easier you can remove it. The older it is, the harder it is to remove. I have even seen a few that just don't wash off at all.

It isn't really etching, it is more like mineral deposits attaching themselves to the glass.

This is why I always told my customers to pick one day a year (new years, birthday... some day they will remember) and inspect their framed artwork. If they see any mark, or discoloration, write it down. The next year, they should compare and see if the marks change. If they do, it is time to reframe the artwork.
 
Sue, I think you get the award for the best explanation. I would add that the moisture-distributed deposits also include schmutz.
:popc: Rick
 
i have seen this ghosting many times and always thought it was from solvent in the inks of olde. We framed a baby kilt that had just been cleaned and the customer brought it back a year later because you could barely see the kilt through the etched glass. When we opened it there was a distinct smell of dry cleaning solvent. The funny thing is it must have gotten worse in the frame because it was so strong we would have noticed it when we were framing the piece.
 
Create a Post
Back
Top