Beautiful, aged stained glass panels, imported from England are plentiful in specialty antique shops. Fortunately for us, many have broken pieces and consequently can be bartered down in price. These are “treasures” since most folks don’t want broken pieces in their stained glass panel and antique shop proprietors that carry these stained glass windows are eager to get rid of them.
What we will do is fix the broken glass and then resell the completely fixed panel for a minimum of 150% profit. In this article I will talk you through, step by step, how to disassemble, repair and reassemble the panel.
Firstly, safety concerns. Do you have safety glasses? Be sure to use them because accidents are exactly that, accidents. Protecting your eyes from the errant bursting bubble of acidic flux or the stubborn lead salts that require wire brushing with that old wire brush that suddenly loses its wire bristles, straight at your eye! Additionally, we are dealing with lead, a heavy metal that is poisonous to your body in any substantial dose. The most common way lead gets into your body is ingestion. Don’t eat while working with your panel and wash your hands when you complete the days work.
OK, with that out of the way, lets go.
Step 1 If your stained glass panel is mounted in a wood frame, carefully remove by chipping, chiseling or by whatever means you can the glazing compound holding the panel in. Remember that nails or glazing points are often used to initially secure the panel to the frame, prior to glazing the panel into the frame. After removing the glazing compound, take a screwdriver or needle nose pliers and pry or pull out all the nails/points holding the panel in. (TIP: Use a heat gun to soften the glazing compound so it can be removed more quickly.) In a perfect world the panel would dropout. Not the case. Turn the panel over and take your rubber/plastic glaziers hammer and tap on the corners and along the edge of the panel to determine a loose section that we can start with. Slowly and carefully start prying the panel away from the frame. If you run into a section that just does not want to budge, turn the panel over again and see if you missed a nail or glaziers point. Sometimes it helps to run a glaziers knife along the edge to help loosen the seal between the panel and the wooden frame. OK, you’ve got the panel out of the wooden frame.
Step 2 Clean up the stained glass work area. Depending on how extensive your repair job is (how many pieces of glass you need to repair) number the pieces of glass with a sharpie or stained glass pen. If need be, mark on the frame, “top, right, left and bottom corresponding to the frame pieces. Now take a piece of butcher paper and place it over the panel and take a piece of chalk, crayon or pencil and rub the paper; this will give you a rough pattern of the panel. Mark on the paper the corresponding number of glass piece. Now, if its important to maintain the overall dimensions of the panel (if you’re going to re-install into the wooden frame) take some 1/4” round molding and frame the perimeter of the panel. This will provide you a failsafe method to make sure your panel fits.
Step 3 This is the best part! Lets start dis-assembling the stained glass panel. (TIP-If the glass pieces are large enough, save them for repair of another panel) If the broken piece is located on the edge, take a hacksaw or glaziers knife and remove the exterior channel (most likely lead). Remove, carefully, enough to get the piece of glass out. Save this since this will be used again after we repair the glass. To get the glass out use your glaziers knife and score around the edges of the glass where the glass is inserted into the lead came. We want to scrape out enough of the glass putty to loosen the glass. When the glass is loose enough, pull the glass out.
Step 4 If your broken glass pieces are more interior, carefully unsolder the solder joints to release the cracked pieces of glass.
Step 5 After the stained glass is out, carefully clean all the remaining glass putty out of the lead channel.
Step 6 If your replacement stained glass is cathedral, lay the replacement glass over the space where the cracked glass was and use your sharpie to trace your cut line onto the stained glass. Remember to trace onto the glass the approximate location of the lead heart, that will allow enough glass to grind to a perfect fit. If your replacement stained glass is opalescent, take a clear piece of window glass and trace, (like mentioned for the cathedral glass) then take your window glass to the light table and make a paper template to use to cut your glass. (TIP: If your light table provides a strong enough light you may be able to lay your opalescent stained glass over your window glass tracing and make your template that way)
Step 7 Cut your stained glass and compare to the opening. Grind to get the exact fit.
Step 8 Fit your replacement glass into the stained glass panel. Start with your inner most pieces and work outward to the edge of the stained glass panel.
Step 9 Replace the border (step 3). You will most probably need a stiff wire brush to get all the oxidation off to get a good solder bead. Persevere. Make sure you solder both sides!
Step 10 Grout/glaze both sides of your repair being careful to force the grout into the lead channel. Sprinkle generous amounts of whiting and let dry overnight.
Step 11 Next day. Now clean up the stained glass where it enters the lead with the sharp end of a fid. Use your soft bristle brush to polish and clean your new repair.
Step 12 Reinsert your stained glass panel back into the original frame. Secure with small tacks or better yet, glaziers points. Glaze and your all done.
Its amazing how much replacing the broken glass will increase the value of the stained glass panel. Now you can advertise in your local newspaper, Craigslist or even on Ebay. After you sell it, go find another stained glass panel and repeat!
