Fit and tune the sashes so they they can be stripped down, reglazed and painted – but in the middle of that there’s a lot.
- Deconstructing the entire window.
- Partial reassembly with new parting beads and stops in the correct position.
- Making new parting beads on the table saw because some of them broke.
- Sanding the corners of the casing so the paint doesn’t chip off.
- Cutting ropes to the proper length and attaching them to the weights.
- Putting sharp knife blades on the utility knife.
- Sharpening and using a hive tool.
- The figure 8 knot.
- Using worn out carbide blades on the scraper because you left the new one at the shop.
- And on and on and on and on.
When taking a window apart, it’s important to remember that we take it apart for the sole reason of putting it back together better than it was. Let THAT idea influence HOW we take it apart.
At first, when we are new to the craft, we take it apart from a perspective of curiosity, intrigue, excitement, wonder. We are exploring and we all explore differently. Some machete right through the jungle, others stop and microscope every plant, every insect, jotting down notes in their journal. Both mindsets have their value but left on their own, are wrong. The machete’s goal is to conquer taking everything apart regardless of cost or bloodshed. The microscope’s goal is to hold the piece and study it as though the artifact is holy, never making any progress, when the goal all along is putting it back together better than before.
We don’t have all day. We don’t have unlimited resources. We have to complete the job and move on to the next. The machete is useful but it’s not the only tool in the kit. Each piece is indeed important, but holy for us is performance, beauty and completion. That is our destination and goal.
Let us therefore find the shortest path to our goal without leaving a trace of our path. No clues. No trail.
