Oak Box Sash Windows

[harkerhill]

I'm getting some plastic windows changed over on my house for oak box sash windows to try to return my house back to its former glory.

It always seems a shame to paint the outside of the windows, and wanted to keep the wood on show.

What would everyone suggest with treating the outside of the window? Also would the outside need treating every year?

For the inside I have been treating the oak with danish oil and rubbing it down to get a lovely finish.

 

[biffvernon]

An excellent plan. If you leave the oak unpainted it will gradually fade to a range of greys and pale browns, paler where the sun bleaches it, darker where it stay wet longest. It won't come to any harm though. The process is slowed by coating with linseed oil.

With respect to returning to its former glory, it must have been a particularly glorious house to have originally had oak box sashes. This type of window was introduced at the same time as the cost of importing Baltic pine dropped in the late 17th century, the pine being easier to work into the thin sections required for the boxes. Oak, which was becoming relatively expensive at that time, had been the commonest timber for casement windows, but was rarely used for the new-fangled box sashes.

 

[Penners]

On the subject of Baltic pine, for anyone who is concerned about the way that Scandinavian softwood forests are managed/harvested/conserved, this is an interesting treatise.

If forests were managed worldwide the way that they are in Sweden, we wouldn't be having half the planetary ecosystem problems that we have today.

 

[biffvernon]

Let's face it, if the whole world was managed by Sweden we wouldn't be having half the planetary ecosystem problems that we have today.

 

[Nemesis]

I have to say unpainted oak sashes I have only ever seen, although I'm not saying there aren't some painted ones around thus the oak is hidden, in very grand houses indeed.

 

[harkerhill]

When I say former glory, I'm cheating then!

I'm not a 100% purist, possibly 50%.

I certainly am replacing the modern plastic windows with wooden box sashes, but probably using a different type of wood, and not painting it where it might have used to be.

 

[Nemesis]

You are allowed to say 'former glory' once, but any more and I shall be forced to arrive on your doorstep and beat you around the head.

 

[CHRIS]

You are allowed to say 'former glory' once, but any more and I shall be forced to arrive on your doorstep and beat you around the head.

Could you come and visit my local estate agent please?

 

[Nemesis]

Oh, and every newspaper article, every TV prog, anything to do with doing summick up... do a google for the phrase...

Many of these were never that glorious anyhow!

OK OK nurse, I'll come quietly, a nice nap and my pills please...

 

[biffvernon]

Unpainted mahogany was used for box sash windows by the super rich. Kenwood House, Hampstead, is probably the best known example. The merely very rich had their pine windows painted with a wood-grain effect to pretend they were mahogany. Now that mahogany is a complete no-no oak might be regarded as a suitable substitute.

 

[Nemesis]

I have seen oak sashes in large hices. Very large hices.

 

[Penners]

Let's face it, if the whole world was managed by Sweden we wouldn't be having half the planetary ecosystem problems that we have today.

Seconded.