What to Know About Canvas Stretcher Bars

Need for canvas stretcher bars

 

For artists and professional framers, it is common practice to stock up on canvas stretcher bars. Under typical circumstances, it is always helpful to have canvas stretcher bars of varying sizes available close at hand whenever the need to stretch and frame canvases of different sizes arises. This is the reason why those who have to work with canvas sheets on a regular basis always prefer to keep a stock of canvas stretcher bars with them.

Buying canvas bar products

 

While buying canvas bar products in bulk for storage and future use is always a good idea, one should be careful about the quality of the bars. Canvas bar, especially those that are made of low quality materials, have been known to warp and bend over time when put to actual use. In some cases, bars stored for a long time for later use, have been found to have warped or gotten out of shape from natural heat and humidity. The fact is, ensuring the dimensional stability of the wood used to make these stretcher bars has always been the most difficult task. Keeping the bars in shape, especially when in use, has always been a major problem.

Buying canvas bar products

 

This is why some manufacturers have started using short splines instead of longer, continuous pieces of wood, for making the canvas bars. This little engineering innovation adds a great deal of strength to the bars and increases their ability to resist the effects of the enormous amounts of pressure they are typically subjected to when used to stretch large pieces of canvas. So remember to buy bars with splines and enjoy complete peace of mind.

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