Save America's Windows

Keeping your hands clean. First, get less on your hands. Spread a rag out on your bench. Sprinkle a little whiting on it. Pat your hands on the whiting to coat your palms and fingers. Then pick up your wad of whiting and roll it in the whiting on the rag. Get the putty on the sash as quickly as poss...

White oak is fine for window sash. The heartwood is quite decay resistant. I have seen 300 year old sash made out of it.
It's not common because other woods (like pine, cypress or fir) are less costly and more easily worked and machined.

With the glass cleaning methods detailed in my book, I clean all the glass for five or ten windows before I change the razor blade, and never get glass scratches. I think the details that lead to no scratches are: -- while the glass is still in the sash and dry, dry brush off the glass and sash to g...

Glass Cleaning, Wet Wash Methods These methods and materials are for cleaning glass panes before glazing and painting. Can you keep a secret? At the risk of getting sued by the window cleaner product manufacturers, I'll tell you two secrets they definitely do not want you to know. But first, here ar...

How to keep window cleaners from damaging new putty. With oil putties I always advise ABSOLUTELY NO window cleaning until one full year after glazing and painting to allow the putty and paint to fully cure and firm up. Then follow the step-by-step window cleaning method in the Window Preservation St...

Repairing windows made after the 1980s:

It is possible to glue the edges of broken window pane glass back together. It takes a special adhesive that has the same refractive index as glass, so that the glued line does not show. Try LocTite Glass Glue. Readily available, low cost, refractive index similar to most window glass so joint is no...

(update: 6/16/19, details on blank stock) It would take at least two hours to repair the rail, so I decided to replace it with a new one since that would take less than 45 minutes. 7lEDVRyggnE Procedure 1. Assess Conditions Weather checks Catch screw holes Splits Ring checks Broken tenons Decision: ...

If a lot of the windows are the same size, take the sash from one or more in a little used back room and board up those windows. Then use those sash as temporary sash to fill the openings as you work around the rest of the building. This leaves the occupants with most of the windows working--good fo...

I now use little tiny miniature pointy vicegrips to pull the pin. Not the best quality tool, but entirely adequate for pulling pins.

https://www.amazon.com/SE-9866LP-Self.../dp/B00DE8HFBM