Jack Richeson & Company (www.richesonart.com) have taken their name and phone number off their stretcher bars label and I wonder if its because a lot of people are calling to complain about some ongoing quality control problems. Ordinarily I would call but its useless really since we have no other choices here in Seattle or even up in Vancouver, Canada for that matter.
When it comes to stretcher bars for giclée canvas you don't have many choices unless you want to shop online because art supply stores only sell one kind. In Canada it's the DeSerres® line and here in the Seattle area Jack Richeson & Co. have monopolized the market.
Although I enjoy playing Monopoly® my giclée printing company isn't about fun and games and when quality problems creep into the components we use that's, well...creepy. Such has been the case with Richeson stretcher bars.
To be fair, Richeson's are the best pre-fabricated stretcher bars we've ever used. But it's hit or miss with their products. Sometimes the stretcher bars have some real problems that we hope the nice folks at Richeson will attend to after they read this blog.
One annoying problem has to do with the wood they use... it's so strong that nails bounce right out! You can see in the picture below that I had to make six shots to get one nail through. Amazing.
I haven't seen that kind of quality timber in a long time... too bad it has to be wasted on stretcher bars. As the company is based in Wisconsin it's probably Northern Red Oak, Quaking Aspen, Silver Maple or some other 'exotic' hardwood species that would rather become a piece of fine furniture. Not that I'm complaining. I'd much rather have good quality woods than the airy stuff that DeSerres® bars are made of... you know, those 'fast growing' trees. Still, a nice Fir or Hemlock would do.
The super hard woods they use at Richeson also present the user of their stretcher bars with sharp edges that can cause cracks on tightly stretched coated giclée canvas... an issue I reported in an earlier blog about Golden® Polymer Varnish. These edges have to be planed, filed or sanded down until they don't hurt when you press your thumb down hard on them.
Bad fit is the other problem that bedevils us.
The little 12 X 8 stretcher in the picture above is actually what provoked this blog. It took me 10 minutes of fiddling around to get it straight... and when it was one corner sure looked like it wasn't, eh? Anyway 10 minutes is way too long. A small company like my giclée printing firm Vashon Island Imaging (www.vashonislandimaging.com) would have to charge way more if all stretcher bars took that long to assemble. Time is money, eh?
In all fairness, most of the Richeson stretcher bars fit very well, which is why we like them so much. With a few gentle whacks from a big rubber mallet the corners snug-in nicely and it will be 95% square if not ready to go... except sometimes... when the pieces don't fit because the jigs that made them were different.
For a while the problem had to do with Richeson's supplier in China. The company has the stretcher bars made in the USA as well and parts from the two countries didn't work together. The fit was so bad that the stretchers 'torque'd' and wouldn't lie flat. It's hard to fix torque problems but there is a solution and a lot more about this in my book, Giclée Prepress - The Art of Giclée (www.gicleeprepress.com).
Lately however the fit problems are among US made parts, which is disconcerting. It's only stretcher bars, for Pete's sake... basic carpentry... they ought'a be able to get that right, eh?
The problem that really bends me out of shape are the curved stretcher bars that make it through quality inspection. Jack, play straight with us poor giclée stretchers. Sell those to bent ones to rocking horse makers please... not to us.
To say more would be stretching the issue too far. So let's put a 'wrap' to this blog. However, just one more thing... the logo.
Does this guy remind you of someone? That's right... the guy with the cross to bear. This logo will be particularly appropriate if Jack doesn't fix the QC probs. One thing's for sure, he's sure making me cross.
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