I spent yesterday afternoon applying glazing putty to a window while simultaneously speculating about hosting the world’s first Olympics of window glazing. Who needs gymnastics? At the glazing Olympics, the judges will score the smoothness of the putty line, evenness of the corners, economic use of materials and cleanliness of the glass. One can also easily imagine the constant and exciting play by play banter in the broadcast booth.
For those of you lucky enough to have escaped this task, window glazing putty is a soft and slightly greasy material that seals the glass and keeps it secure. Fumble the application and, every time you glance out the window, you have wavy gobs of putty to provide an ongoing reminder of your lack of glazing skills.
I’ve always found applying glazing putty to be a challenging job, one of those tasks you only do every few years and never get the chance to get good at. Yesterday I was applying glazing putty to a new and expensive window that I had milled and I wanted it to look good. So, naturally, I took to YouTube for some tutorials and quickly landed on two excellent glazing tutorials by none other than Root Simple pal Eric of Garden Fork (video two is here).
After viewing the videos several times and getting plenty of practice on my new window (nine panes on the top and one on the bottom), I managed to achieve acceptable (though not gold medal) results by the end of the job. Some tips that I gleaned from Eric’s video:
- Use a stiff, bent putty knife like this the one above. It makes the job a lot easier.
- Pack the putty in firmly. You can see this first step in the video. If you don’t do this it will pull out when you make the final pass with the putty knife.
- As to that final pass, use a lot of pressure and don’t hesitate.
- Clean the glass immediately with mineral spirits.
Now I’m kinda serious about the Olympics of window glazing. Perhaps we will see some gold medal glaziers when we host the event in 2028. Get practicing as the winners will make millions from Dap sponsorships!
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It would be nice to see a picture of the final result. Did you make the nine-pane wooden window yourself? If so, that would be an interesting topic.
Yes, I should have posted the first pane (not so good) and the last pane (almost ok). And no, I had the window milled at a local lumber yard to match the original. It’s a bit outside my woodworking comfort zone.
HA! This is perfectly timed… I opened my blogroll as Hubs was walking up the stairs with some glazing compound…
A friend agreed to do my windows, saying he knew how. Before he left to come here, he asked if I had any tiny thumbtacks. I asked what for. He said he needed them. I had the points, but not called thumbtacks! Plus, he did not need either. He spent an hour or more on a ladder smearing the wrong stuff all over the window panes and wood. He ruined the gun the stuff was in. Forgot what he brought to do this. Ruined a brand new gun while applying it. I could not get up that high on a ladder outside the house, or I could have done a much better job.
Great tips. We have had to replace a few window panes in our older style house. Its not easy!