Original Gallery Stretcher Bars are a chunky 35mm wide and 38mm deep and made from high quality Fir, a timber commonly accredited for it's rot and warp resistant characteristics. The sheer strength of these bars is obtained from a unique profile design that helps prevent "bowing" when stretching the canvas.

The profiles are also slightly rounded. This has two advantages, firstly for the stretching of canvas prints or re-stretching of paintings as It enables easier stretching of canvases with images that have precise borders, and secondly for painting as it allows the canvas weave to "roll over" the profile rather than snap over a sharp edge which is a major cause of canvas cracking.

These easy to assemble stretcher frames have expandable joints that allow the canvas to be re-tensioned over time, as most paintings have a natural tendency to stretch and sag.

The keys or wedges are inserted in the joint after stretching the canvas to give the canvas its final tension. . . It is commonly thought that to tighten the canvas you should knock the keys in, in fact this is the easiest way to damage any stretchers joints, the keys should only be used to lock the tension acquired after tapping out the stretcher bars for the extra stretching required.

It is always best when fastening the canvas to an assembled frame to assure pressure is distributed evenly around the stretcher to minimize warping due to unequal distribution of pull. To help achieve this it is always advisable to start from the four centres of the frame and work out towards the corners gently pulling the canvas consistently and squarely to the frame.

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