Bedding glass and metal tapes vs. rope

[aislinn]

Two questions:

I’m ready to bed the glass in my window and wondering if it’s absolutely necessary? I am attaching a photo of what it looked like before I deglazed it. The glass is Florentine and there is putty that “leaked” on from the bedding. I’m also wondering how it will work when I start on our downstairs windows that are not painted on the interior. The ones where the glass are bedded I can see a line of white and it definitely doesn’t look great. Is it a hard and fast rule to always bed the glass?

Second part question, I removed the next window I’ll be working on and it has metal tape instead of rope. It works ok. I don’t think I have the skills to switch it back to rope. Any advice on how to get the tape working more smoothly?

[1918ColonialRevival]

It looks like whoever glazed the window last used too much. For an application like this, I would use a very thin bead of glazing to bed the glass into so it doesn't seep out around it. For regular flat glass, it's not a big deal if a little glaze comes out, as you can remove it with a putty knife or razor blade. Florentine glass is a bit more difficult, as the person who did these last learned the hard way.

You'll want the glass to be sitting in a bed of glaze instead of sitting up against the wood.

Not sure I follow about metal tape versus rope. Are you referring to the sash cord? Some windows, particularly those of the early 1900s, used a chain instead of a cord. Both perform the same function, though chain is more durable provided someone doesn't slop a bunch of paint on it like they did with my windows.

[mjt]

The windows at my old house used metal sash ribbons. I made several blogposts about them (Sash Ribbons and Sash Ribbons Revisited).

If your pulleys have a flat face, they are meant for ribbon or chain. If the pulley face is concave, then they are intended for rope/cord. Mine worked really smoothly and quietly, at least until the ribbon broke. I never found a good source for replacement ribbon. Chain is noisier and will work just fine as a replacement. Kilian, House of Antique Hardware, and other places have chain.

[Gothichome]

Aislinn, here is a discussion on the ribbon from a long time ago. It probably has some info for you.
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=277&hilit=Ribbon
Gothichome has only one peice of Florentine glass, it was a replacement for an etched sheet replaced long ago. It is a bit of a bugger to get a clean edge

[1918ColonialRevival]

I can't believe it! I forgot about sash ribbon and didn't make the connection!

Not sure if that was more of a regional thing. Sash ribbon is rarely seen in this area - probably 99.9% of applications used either rope or chain.

[mjt]

I can't believe it! I forgot about sash ribbon and didn't make the connection!

Not sure if that was more of a regional thing. Sash ribbon is rarely seen in this area - probably 99.9% of applications used either rope or chain.

If I hadn't had a house with sash ribbon, I wouldn't have known about it...

[aislinn]

Thanks everyone! My house has about 2/3 rope and 1/3 of these ribbons. I’m assuming they were all rope and then replaced with these ribbon things. There’s no weights attached to them anymore, so not sure how feasible it is to convert them back but would sure like to!
One is not going all the way up and I have no idea how to fix it…the research continues. Thanks for your resources.

And I took your advice in bedding with very minimal putty and so far so good!