Next Project...Oak Door with Beveled Glass

Last night I resumed a small project that I had started over a year ago. I usually have several projects going at one time. This allows me to work on one project while waiting for a part, perfect weather, inspiration, or ambition. Sometimes I just get bored with a long term project and need to do something else to just break the monotony.

Several years ago I bought the door that we are going to install between our vestibule and foyer. When I stripped the paint from the doorway and saw witness marks from previous hinges it was confirmed that indeed there had been a door at one time.

I purchased an old solid oak door with 15 beveled glass lites. This door was covered in numerous coats of paint. Some of the tiny trim around the lites were loose and had paint drips behind the glass. I needed to remove the glass and clean the paint drips if I was going to return this door to it's previous glory.

Slowly I removed the trim which was only attached with one small nail. The beveled glass was not only paint covered and filthy but also very thick heavy glass with a slight green tint. Once all the glass was removed I could finish stripping the paint drips.This left me with a stack of very heavy and very dirty glass. I was very careful when handling the glass as I did not want to have to replace any broken lites nor did I want to cut myself. The procedure I used took a whole evening to complete and resulted in a case of dish pan hands for me.First of all I placed a thick bath towel in the bottom of the sink. I then very carefully place one piece of glass onto the towel and then turned the water on. I used a couple drops of dish soap to help clean off the grime. I found that a sponge with a Scotch Brite pad on one side worked the best at cutting the dirt. Once I had removed all the dirt I could see where I needed to use a razor blade in a paint scraper to remove the paint. I then dried off the glass and placed it onto another thick bath towel.Here is a photo of the finished stack of clean glass.
The next step is to reinstall the glass and return the small trim pieces without breaking the glass or the trim pieces. But before I can do that, I have to finish the project R and I are currently working on. More on that...tomorrow.