Is there a way to soften old window glaze to remove it? I am not sure what the
glazing is made of, but I'm thinking it's oil based.

Nathan Goodwin 
H.I.S. Carpentry 
Honesty. Integrity. Service.
(617)347-6744
Blog: https://hiscarpentryblog.wordpress.com/

Steam is the least destructive thing I've found.  I've used a wallpaper 
steamer and a garment steamer.  It doesn't really soften the putty, but 
does seem to weaken the bond to the sash.

I've used a heat gun.  But anything over about 100 years old doesn't soften that
way.

YMMV, Gary Katsanis
Albion New York, USA

---- Nathan Goodwin  wrote: 

=============
Is there a way to soften old window glaze to remove it? I am not sure what the
glazing is made of, but I'm thinking it's oil based.

Nathan Goodwin 
H.I.S. Carpentry 
Honesty. Integrity. Service.
(617)347-6744
Blog: https://hiscarpentryblog.wordpress.com/

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I’ve seen heat guns used with care to remove putty.

John

“P.S. If you do not receive this, of course it must have been miscarried;
therefore I beg you to write and let me know.” - Sir Boyle Roche, M.P.
---- Nathan Goodwin mailto:hiscarpentry@g...>> wrote:

=============
Is there a way to soften old window glaze to remove it? I am not sure what the
glazing is made of, but I'm thinking it's oil based.

Nathan Goodwin
H.I.S. Carpentry
Honesty. Integrity. Service.
(617)347-6744
Blog: https://hiscarpentryblog.wordpress.

Nathan,

I've noticed that methylene chloride paint stripper tends to dissolve old putty,
though not really soften it. I've used a putty chaser to good effect when
salvaging old glass from bad sashes. It won't get all of the putty but the
stripper will finish it up.

-Ken, who's just as glad he no longer has to worry about salvaging old glass and
repairing old sashes

You could try this with a Yankee screwdriver instead of a tailed 
apprentice.  (and its sold right down the road from you). I've used 
their beam cutter attachment and it works well.

http://praziusa.com/puttychaser.html

I have cracked a pane of glass with a heat gun - so use it on ‘Low” or better an
old hair dryer

Ed Minch

For classic antique pane windows,
I never figured out anything that worked well enough at softening putty 
to be worth the trouble.
And I have changed at least 100 panes of glass in old windows in my time.
  Just dig in

  A "nooker knife" or window chisel is good
or just a regular chisel (maybe not your favorite chisel) and care.

  You are going to break them now and again. Comes with the territory.
Regular old school window glass though, just cut you a new pane.
Cutting glass is part of the antique life.
  If I had you here for even a few minutes, you'd be doing it too.

  Cool news about window and stained glass work.
  Right now, for the first time in my life, (and probably not for long 
as these things go),
  glass cutters are available from China.... heroically cheap!

   Usually when a new product hits the market they offer it for 
practically nothing to see if it sells at all.
  It it doesn't sell they quit making them and if it does sell they 
quadruple the price, sometimes more.
           I bought a whole sack of them.   :)

Here are my regular setting window tools.
Homemade window hammer. You slide it along the pane of glass to drive in 
the points that secure your glass.  A driver I made up, to hold the 
point in place for driving.
  My points box and my window chisel.
  These have served me very well for a long time

  http://users.snowcrest.net/kitty/sgrandstaff/images/house/windowstuff.jpg

I also have an embarrassing number of putty and pallet knives lol
  yours Scott

-- 
*******************************
    Scott Grandstaff
    Box 409 Happy Camp, Ca  96039
    scottg@s...
    http://www.snowcrest.net/kitty/sgrandstaff/
    http://www.snowcrest.net/kitty/hpages/index.html

I've used an infrared paint heater but lately I've found the Wagner wallpaper
steamer works fine to break the bond between the wood.
I've followed John Leeke's advice on 38 lower/uppers, built 38 storms, and
another tip is that using 0000 steel wool with elbow grease will clean smears,
paint, water spots, etc. off old glass and make it excellent looking without
scratching.
Penetrol and turpentine mix is a good pretreatment soaked in and ragged off
prior to glazing, slow oil primer, and topcoats.
Sam Packard
Lincoln, NE

I took a two-day class in Weare NH for old window restoration.

Their recommendation, as part of a full sash rebuild, was to use a steamer (they
sell a nice one) feeding into a steam box sized for the sashes.
This not only warms up the glass as well, avoiding thermal shock, but also
softens some of the paint and lets you remove that as well.
They usually use a heat gun for the bulk paint removal, though, because scraping
the steamed sash wood often does more damage to the profile.

Basic sequence:

remove sashes from window, numbering as  you go, traditional numbering pattern

mark all the panes in a sash, also in a standard pattern

Steam sashes

once hot, scrape out putty, points, remove panes (done on a lead-grade/hepa
vacuum table for production, or a simple easel on plastic, for lead collection)

soak panes in water/simple green during following steps

remove all sash paint

perform mechanical repairs (dutchman patches, new pegs, new parts if needed,
epoxy if feeling modern)

prime all (but NEVER sliding sides of sashes) surfaces

first coat finish on sash inside (also NEVER on sliding sides)

reglaze with cleaned (easy after soaking) glass in original locations (recall
the numbers...)

finish coats of paint

As many of the stages (drying wood, glues, putty, paints) take time to cure,
having multiple sashes going in various stages keeps you busy.
A large painters easel can be used for much of the work, but custom tables can
help in production, like a big filtered downdraft table for the putty and paint
removal,
or the one I saw rebuilt into a power-height-adjustable drafting table, with the
table turned into an airbox to pull away the lead paint, and adjustable to ease
your back.

Then similar in-place treatment to window frames, repair old
balances/ropes/chains, add weather stripping, replace sashes.

Good for another 50 years, with occasional painting!  Exterior wooden storm
preferred, modern ones with glass/screen swap-able).
Performance nearly as good as modern double-glazed, much more authentic look,
will outlast anything new.

I'm still setting up a workspace for my 1806 house with (counting....) 17 large
16 over 16 originals, plus more various vintages in later additions.
Will probably do one room at a time, with temporary panels in the openings, or
existing storms left in until replaced.  Given the age, will take a bit
more to upgrade/repair the frames, none have any balance systems and spring pins
and such are broken.

My instructor runs:  http://www.oldewindowrestorer.com/">http://www.oldewindowrestorer.com/
and in addition to the glasses can supply many of the traditional/best tools as
well as techniques and materials.
I enjoyed the class last fall....most of the students either have old houses or
are running/starting restoration businesses of their own....he's spawned off
other businesses
and craftsmen the same way the Windsor chair classes did/do....




-----Original Message-----
From: Nathan Goodwin 
To: Old Tools List 
Sent: Wed, Oct 24, 2018 4:36 pm
Subject: [OldTools] Soften glazing


Is there a way to soften old window glaze to remove it? I am not sure what the
glazing is made of, but I'm thinking it's oil based.



Nathan Goodwin 

H.I.S. Carpentry 

Honesty. Integrity. Service.

(617)347-6744

Blog: https://hiscarpentryblog.wordpress.com/



------------------------------------------------------------------------

OldTools is a mailing list catering to the interests of hand tool

aficionados, both collectors and users, to discuss the history, usage,

value, location, availability, collectibility, and restoration of

traditional handtools, especially woodworking tools.



To change your subscription options:

https://oldtools.swingleydev.com/mailman/listinfo/oldtools



To read the FAQ:

https://swingleydev.com/archive/faq.html



OldTools archive: https://swingleydev.com/ot/



OldTools@s...

Dave, thanks man! That is very helpful!
 

Nathan Goodwin 
H.I.S. Carpentry 
Honesty. Integrity. Service.
(617)347-6744
Blog: https://hiscarpentryblog.wordpress.com/

OK, I've been watching this for a while and guess I.ll throw this out.  In
a previous lifetime, my family business did window replacement as part of
the overall operation.  We had a putty heater for removing putty that I
still have.  It was a commercial product that is still available, I think.
I still have the last one we had and am willing to sell it to someone if
there is an interest.  I'm too old to replace glass anymore, so should just
go ahead with divestiture.
The way they work is they have an electric heating element with ceramic
surrounding it that directs the heat to the putty.  If you linger too long,
it can crack the glass, but used with care, glass can be removed without
damage.  I'm not really doing a selling job to anyone, just passing on
information.  If we happened to be on site where electricity wasn't handy,
we would frequently use propane torches with the smallest outlet available,
but that was usually when the glass was already broken and it didn't
matter.  We did have one guy that had done enough of this work that he
could use the torch and rarely break a glass.  Any way, just agreeing with
others that there is more than one way to do this and I have a way that
hadn't been mentioned.
Bruce
Des Moines, IA

On Wed, Oct 24, 2018 at 3:36 PM Nathan Goodwin 
wrote:

Spent a weekend at the Preservation Trades Network conference a couple of weeks
ago. The go-to tools of the professionals is now the steam box, as previously
mentioned, and infrared heaters, specifically these: https://eco-
strip.com/">https://eco-strip.com/


As Bruce says, you can't linger too long or bad things will happen. Of course,
that also means that you don't spend forever trying to heat a sash.


-Tom
<https://eco-strip.com/>

(Who keeps missing the Brown's show and sale, but that's apparently moot if Seo
bought the place out.)

________________________________
From: OldTools  on behalf of Bruce Zenge

Sent: Sunday, October 28, 2018 11:25 PM
To: hiscarpentry@g...
Cc: Galoots
Subject: Re: [OldTools] Soften glazing

OK, I've been watching this for a while and guess I.ll throw this out.  In
a previous lifetime, my family business did window replacement as part of
the overall operation.  We had a putty heater for removing putty that I
still have.  It was a commercial product that is still available, I think.
I still have the last one we had and am willing to sell it to someone if
there is an interest.  I'm too old to replace glass anymore, so should just
go ahead with divestiture.
The way they work is they have an electric heating element with ceramic
surrounding it that directs the heat to the putty.  If you linger too long,
it can crack the glass, but used with care, glass can be removed without
damage.  I'm not really doing a selling job to anyone, just passing on
information.  If we happened to be on site where electricity wasn't handy,
we would frequently use propane torches with the smallest outlet available,
but that was usually when the glass was already broken and it didn't
matter.  We did have one guy that had done enough of this work that he
could use the torch and rarely break a glass.  Any way, just agreeing with
others that there is more than one way to do this and I have a way that
hadn't been mentioned.
Bruce
Des Moines, IA

On Wed, Oct 24, 2018 at 3:36 PM Nathan Goodwin 
wrote:

> Is there a way to soften old window glaze to remove it? I am not sure what
> the glazing is made of, but I'm thinking it's oil based.
>
>
>
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