Re-using Glass in reframing jobs

markw · Post by **markw** » Mon 09 Apr, 2007 8:46 am

The trouble with antique dealers knowing that you dont mind cutting old glass is that they turn up with sheets of the stuff + templates. I would say that I am fairly good at cutting freehand shapes from glass, I've plenty of experience. trouble with old glass is that its variability makes it difficult to cut. Glass may stay in a semi fluid state, but with age it also gets very brittle. I always tell the customer that I will unsuccessfully cut custom shapes at least 50% of the time - sometimes 100% - its their risk.

I also get asked to cut old mirrors but have recently assessed the health risk. Most of the real old stuff is silvered with mercury - you can see the mercury beading on the mirror back at times - mercury fumes are not good.

Dealers will pay staggeringly high sums for old mirror glass - they get really upset when you tell them you cant cut it - They often just want a thin strip cut off the edges - in thickish mirror glass just not possible.

Some of the new antiqued mirror glass is now quite good - very intrigued with the stuff that realhotglass makes.

Not your average framer · Mon 09 Apr, 2007 9:30 am

I have seen old rippled glass for sale at the local Recycling Centre, it goes pretty cheap. Just a thought for anyone needing to find some for a customer.

realhotglass · Post by **realhotglass** » Tue 10 Apr, 2007 2:32 am

I wonder if people can ever get over this myth of glass changing shape with time.
It is a complete urban legend.
Just a couple of quickly found links . . .

http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physics/G ... glass.html
http://dwb.unl.edu/Teacher/NSF/C01/C01L ... lorin.html

Actually, just Google > urban legend liquid glass < and see what comes up.

Old glass brittle ?

Sometimes, but it was likely always like that from not being annealed properly, due to early manufacturing techniques / equipment / lehrs etc.

Even modern picture framing glasses (out of China especially) can seemingly have a mind of their own, and run off a cut, or 'clink' when cutting.
Signs of poor annealing (cooling at a rate to ensure no stresss in the glass).

Great tip about the recycle centres . . . also check building salvage yards, they usually have loads of it (mmmm, this might be what you call recycle centres over there).

Not your average framer · Tue 10 Apr, 2007 9:34 pm

Quote: markw - The trouble with antique dealers knowing that you dont mind cutting old glass is that they turn up with sheets of the stuff + templates.

Mark,

I don't find that a problem. Who else is willing to do it? Specialist services are always charged at price which reflects the fact that nobody else wants to do it. I always charge extra for jobs like this!

However, I don't like cutting to templates and tell them to bring in the frame instead to avoid arguements later when it doesn't fit the way they expected it to.

kev@frames · Post by **kev@frames** » Wed 11 Apr, 2007 5:28 pm

foxyframer wrote:Antique glass Kev may be diificult to cut due to its fluid state. The glass in a vertical position will after a very long time thin out at the top and thicken towards its base, whether in a picture frame or a pane in a window.

If you laid, say a metal object on a sheet, it would given time drop through.

Strange, but true.

im glad you said that, Tom at work was telling daniel about the fluidity of old glass the other day, and I daniel had "that" look on his face. I'd heard that about it too, but poor old dan thought we were winding him up

I'll show him this in the morning.

I suppose it'd be good practice to turn it round in an old frame then!

Realhotglass- i prefer them to bring the frame in, better than sending them off on the bus with a sheet of glass as well.

foxyframer · Post by **foxyframer** » Wed 11 Apr, 2007 6:56 pm

Scientists are still not sure if glass is liquid or solid - or plasma.

Like MarkW, I live in a very old house with antique glass panes. Any which occasionally have to be replaced are thicker at the base. Not easy to match. Rather like the old pics we have in for a bit of TLC. Glass thicker at the base. Odd that and a little spookey, or what.

Kev - is Dan the young lad in your workshop and maybe you have sent him out for a skyhook or a tin of elbowgrease.

Customers in our area have coming in with your limited editions for framing. Moonshine stickers on the back. Very popular, Cornwall with a lot of our customers.

kev@frames · Post by **kev@frames** » Wed 18 Apr, 2007 12:38 am

foxyframer wrote:Scientists are still not sure if glass is liquid or solid - or plasma.

Like MarkW, I live in a very old house with antique glass panes. Any which occasionally have to be replaced are thicker at the base. Not easy to match. Rather like the old pics we have in for a bit of TLC. Glass thicker at the base. Odd that and a little spookey, or what.

Kev - is Dan the young lad in your workshop and maybe you have sent him out for a skyhook or a tin of elbowgrease.

Customers in our area have coming in with your limited editions for framing. Moonshine stickers on the back. Very popular, Cornwall with a lot of our customers.

Dan's a veteran framer now, worked for us for 6 years straight out of school, then went to manage another framers, then went off making conservatories as a bench joiner for a year or so, and came back to us a few weeks back when a vacancy arose- by pure coincidence he was going for a framing job elsewhere, and asked if it was ok to give us as a reference
... the rest is history, I gave him an awful reference, and he had to come and work for me (only kidding about the awful reference

).

But by coincidence, re skyhooks, today he announced that he was off to the hardware shop for a "chisel knife", which caused great bemusement, as we hadn't the faintest idea what he meant. He left with calls of "pick up some calibrated skyhooks and a tin of elbow grease while you are there...."
Anyway, he came back with a paint scraper.

Someone isn't doing their job if those limited editions are escaping from the shop without the customer buying some framing.

I expect they are from artists who fit their own pics and resell.
We do a lot of bulk for quite a few. I bet they are either in slater harrison C04 antique white budget board, or Aruadia Textured white Hayseed white core.... that accounts for 90 percent of what we sell to artists lol. We do supply the stickers if they want them. Some refuse them, or even ask us not to put stickers on. "in case the competitors find out where to get mounts" (sigh) They pay more, for being muppets

Framer Dave · Post by **Framer Dave** » Fri 20 Apr, 2007 3:11 pm

realhotglass wrote:I wonder if people can ever get over this myth of glass changing shape with time.
It is a complete urban legend.
Just a couple of quickly found links . . .

I didn't read the links, but I'm familiar with the old "liquid glass" rubbish. When people point out the thicker glass at the bottom of the windows as proof of glass flowing, ask them why it never seems to flow out over the window frame at the bottom. That's a good stumper.