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adjframes

True Grumbler
Joined
Dec 17, 2011
Posts
85
Loc
Boston, MA
Hey, so a friend/client of mine from Germany wants me to make up some small "L-shaped" floater frames for some paintings. He has only used raw meranti (German name), from what I can see a beautiful greyish soft hardwood from Malasia (according to Wikipedia it's endangered). I saw some he brought over, was really nice looking.

Has anybody used this before? Any sources in the US to get this raw? What would be a good substitute. He mentioned he'd settle for red oak. Thoughts?

I'm also interested in finding an easy to use, cheap softwood for some other projects. I believe I've used Obeche in the UK, is there anything similar in the states? I have some scraps from another framer that look similar, tight, compact grain, but neutral color. The Obeche I used was super easy to stain.

Any help would be very much appreciated.
 
While not necessarily cheap, these softwoods (they're graded as hard woods) are relatively inexpensive: poplar ( selected for color), cypress, soft maple. Of the three, I'm partial to cypress.
 
As far as the German stuff goes, there is a wood called mansonia that is greyish brown. It kind of looks like walnut but gets greyer over time. It is also much more consistent than walnut. A great soft "hardwood" is basswood. Really easy to work with, stains great, you can get nice long straight sticks. The only problem is that it is rather soft so you have to be somewhat careful putting it into the clumsy clients car, etc....
 
Once you try furniture grade Alder.... you'll be hooked.

Sorry, there is no support group for getting unhooked.... just
us Alderjunkies.
 
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