You want great stretcher bars for your artwork. You want bars that make proper frames. For your lighter work you need bars such as the medium or standard duty stretcher bars that are also known as Fredrix stretcher bars or stretcher strips. These are for every day use and the majority of artists or framers use them. They are called ¾” bars but are actually 11/16” in depth, which is 1/16” less than ¾”. The 1 5/8”width helps the bars withstand bowing due to taut stretching.
For meeting your lighter load you will need light duty stretcher bars. These fill your need to stretch a smaller canvas and you won’t have to stretch your budget. You will find that these bars at 5/8”depth and 1 3/16”width will help make an ideal frame for the smaller paintings and giclee prints for which a thicker bar does not serve any useful purpose. The beaded edge of these bars solve the problems with cracked edges on giclee prints since smoothened edges do not permit the built up of tension that occurs while stretching. However, for strips that are more than 30”you should use cross braces in order to maintain frame strength.
The heavy duty stretcher bars come in three gradual levels. First, there are the Goldilocks that are a great compromise at 1 3/16”depth and width. These are stout enough and are a good bargain. The next level of stretcher bars is the Midi variant at 1 ½”depth and width that will give you some added depth but you won’t need to spend so much. These bars are also straight-grained and light in weight. The Super Heavy Duty stretcher bars are 2”in width and these provide adequate strength for your larger canvases.
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