Navy Seal Picture Frame

Four years ago, Lisa made a cross stitch of the U.S. Air Force official seal for me. I made a simple walnut frame for it and it eventually found its proper place hanging on the front of the executive desk I built two years ago as part of my office remodel.

I asked Lisa to make another cross stitch for me, but this one would be the U.S. Navy official seal. Now, one might ask why I wanted a Navy seal in addition to the Air Force one. Well, my sister was in the Navy in the early 1990s, her birthday is coming up in a few months and I can think of nothing better than to surprise her with a framed U.S. Navy seal.

This was a pretty simply and straight-forward project compared to the utility sink or the chess board (my previous two projects). I had plenty of walnut left over from the chess board build, so I cut a piece off, resawed it and milled the pieces down to 3/4” thickness.

My frame was 2” wide, but for some reason I realized that I was figuring for 1-1/2” when planning the frame. Because of the way I milled and cut the walnut, I couldn’t just change the dimensions to 2”. I did, however, have enough to make the frame 1-3/4” instead.

This frame would differ slightly from mine in its construction. I used loose tenons to join everything together, and cut the groove in the back with a rabbeting bit. I chose to make a mitered frame this time, and I cut the grooves with two passes on the table saw.

To cut the frame sides to length, I used my picture frame sled like I have for the last few frames I’ve made.

With all four sides being equal length, I only needed to set the stop once and I was done.

Of all of the sleds I’ve made over the past couple of years, this is the only one that I still have in use and it works perfectly EVERY time. The only thing that sucks about it is the square it uses has hash marks in 1/10” increments instead of 1/8” or 1/16”…oh well.

With the sides cut to final size, I broke out my picture frame clamps to test how things were fitting.

This clamp can be a pain to get set up, but it works perfectly for mitered frames once dialed in.

I mean, just LOOK at how tight that miter it…chef’s kiss.

I went ahead and applied some glue and left the frame in the clamps overnight. The following morning I removed the excess glue with a sharp(ish) chisel and sanded the frame with 80, 120 and 180 grit. I also made sure to break the edges as well, although with the upcoming next step it probably wasn’t necessary yet.

Whenever I make mitered frames, I ALWAYS cut grooves in the corners for splines to increase the strength of the joints, and to add some visual appeal.

This is one of the few jigs I’ve made that’s actually still around. It’s nothing pretty but, in combination with a flat-bottom grind saw blade, it gets the job done when I need to make cuts for splines.

For the splines, I found a small piece of hard maple scrap already milled to 3/4” thickness from one of my office projects. The splines needed to be 1/4” so a few passes through my planer took care of that. After a couple of cuts on my band saw, I glued in the splines, clamped them in place and left them until the next morning.

I don’t know how, but I was able to mill the hard maple to the EXACT thickness I needed. When I tested them in the grooves, I didn’t even need to sand them to fit.

With the frame and splines clamped up, I cut the plywood back and acrylic to size. Again, it was pretty simple with this frame being a square.

The next day I trimmed the splines as close as I could with the band saw and finished flushing everything up with some 80-grit sandpaper. All of the work I did easing the edges and corners was for nothing as all the extra sanding sharpened them up again. Once I got done with 180-grit on the sides I went ahead and eased all of edges/corners again. After I quick vacuum and wipe-down with mineral spirits, it was time for finish.

Like nearly every picture frame I’ve made to date, I went with simple clear gloss rattle-can lacquer. A few coats on both sides took care of everything. Lacquer is SO simple to apply, but it absolutely STINKS!! Even with the garage open and fans blowing out it still made the workshop smell horrible.

Before applying finish to the back, I made sure to apply my brand. Most of the time I totally forget until after I’ve applied finish. A quick buff with some crumpled kraft paper made everything nice and smooth.

My work was essentially done, so I let Lisa know and she cut the fabric for the cross stitch to size. After installing some framing points, I measured and installed a saw-tooth hanger on the back. Another frame bites the dust.

I just LOVE the way that maple pops when next to the walnut.

I think this cross stitch might look better than mine…I think I might be jealous 😄

This was a nice and simple project and made for a quick win. I made a couple of mistakes along the way, but nothing that will be noticed by anyone but me. All that’s left now is to make a shipping box and send this off to my sister. Her birthday isn’t until July, but I’m just going to send it now so I don’t have to worry about something happening to the frame in the meanwhile.

I don’t have any firm woodworking plans at the moment. I’ve got more yard work planned for the next few weeks, but after that is completely up in the air. I might start on Christmas presents as I’ve got a few in mind already…we’ll see, I guess.