Once in a while the ReSource staff will get a comment that goes like this “Twenty dollars for that? But youse guys (we’re in Buffalo) get it for free and I could get it at the home center for fifteen bucks!” Haggling, although officially discouraged, seems to be unavoidable. But that comment has a few elements that get directly to the heart of the ReUse and its mission.

First, “stuff” at the ReSource is priced on average at 50% of a new or similar item, with adjustments up or down for uniqueness or condition. The reference process come from hardware catalogs (e.g. Lee Valley, Rejuvenation, Van Dyke’s Restorers, Rocklers, etc.), business people (antique dealers, contractors, lumber yards, etc.) and prices of similar items in local stores, lumber yards, and online.

However, the “stuff” the ReUse collects is actually not free. The ReUse is not a passive filter that simply collects items, nor is it an illegal operation that scouts around for vacant buildings and simply helps itself to the contents. Unfortunately people probably associate the ReUse with scrappers who do steal metal and architectural salvage. I’ll address this a bit further down.

Born from and rooted in our community

The ReUse has a 501c3, not-for-profit designation so that money made from its sales is invested directly back into the organization to fund its missions, broadly described here – creating local, self-sustaining economies, job training and personal growth, especially for youths, neighborhood outreach and rebuilding efforts. Please see the webpage for more details and how ReUse is succeeding.
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Two customers came into the resource today looking for leaded glass windows or parts to replace them.

The first was a frazzled and frustrated customer who asked if anyone had come in and sold us a trio of leaded glass windows. Someone had broken into his rental house and stolen three leaded glass windows and left three ragged holes. He was desperately looking for replacement leaded windows.

I explained:

• The ReUse does not buy salvage precisely because it fuels theft of architectural heritage.

• We rarely obtain leaded windows because they are mostly stolen or badly damaged.

• The need to protect leaded and stained glass windows.

The second was friend of mine looking for wood of appropriate dimensions to rebuild four, 52 inch curved sashes for a turret on a house. All four 50 lb windows had been stolen from the second floor. The job to rebuild the sashes alone is massive and expensive. Police detectives went to many antique and pawn shops but never found them.

So again, protect your windows.

Ian

Stained glass

At the ReSource customers often ask for stained glass windows. Our stock is somewhat limited to some smaller pieces, mostly leaded glass as opposed to stained glass proper, and usually with some damage.

Leaded and Stained Glass

The most common type of windows in Buffalo are leaded glass windows rather than stained glass. Leaded glass windows are generally composed of clear glass, although it may be rippled, seedy, beveled, etc… commonly floral and geometric designs are created by the came (the leading) around the glass. I believe these windows were so ubiquitous because they were produced cheaply by mass production techniques. The designs were simpler and clear glass parts were mass produced and needed little cutting. The windows could also be assembled by unskilled labor. I believe that people were emulating the stained glass displayed by the wealthiest households with the means they had. To me it is a testament to the aesthetic sense that Buffalonians had. I’ve never seen more leaded and stained glass in any other city.

By contrast, true stained glass windows are usually unique masterworks. They are/were very expensive – hence the reason they reside in mansions and churches. Strictly speaking stained glass is a mosaic of colored glass. The glasses form the design and the leading is generally not the focus. The cost is born out in the originality, the intricacy, the glass quality, the scale, and labor for these windows. Colored glass was expensive with pink and reddish glasses often containing gold! When unique sheets of grained and swirled glasses such as Youghiogheny glass were used it was customary to have grain patterns continuous across the piece. For example the petals of a flower might all be cut from the same sheet, even though this wastes a lot of glass. Each piece of glass in the mosaic had to be roughly cut and then shaped by a process called grozing – essentially nipping away the sharp points until the glass is the shape desired. Assembly was the same as for leaded windows, except where fancier leading was desired.

Some windows also have drawings on them, e.g. the faces in church windows. This process involves painting the image onto the glasses with “trace paint” mixed in vinegar or gum Arabic depending on the effect needed. The glass then had to be fired at 1100^oF for many hours to evaporate the gum Arabic or other base and let the paint fuse into the glass.

I have included a copy of a page from a favorite book of mine, “Cathedral” by a favorite author/illustrator David Macaulay. From top to bottom it shows the process of making glass, smelting lead, spinning sheets from blown glass, designing, cutting and assembling stained glass windows in 1300 AD. The process has changed little since.

I should note that despite the definitions above there are also extremely intricate leaded windows, cheap unimpressive stained glass windows, and windows that combine both elements.

Care and Feeding of Stained and Leaded Glass

In my neighborhood of about 60 houses only one or two still retain all or part of their leaded glass windows. All had them at one time. This illustrates how rare they are and why the ones we get at the ReSource are usually damaged. That’s the bad news. The good news is that they can be readily repaired. They can also be modified or made more fanciful with a little work. They can also find new life as wall decorations, room dividers, tables or whatever your mind can conceive. Depending on the repair or modification this may not be cheap though, as it requires entirely manual labor.
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Spring is here, love is in the air and what could be more romantic than a walk with your sweetheart through fields of fresh grass, crocuses, tulips, tubs, and sinks. Tubs and sinks? Yep! The field next to the ReSource is just blooming with tubs and sinks. It’s actually more of a bog right now, and not really very romantic, but the the sinks, tubs and toilets have sprouted up (I noticed some unbelievable green and yellow ones this Saturday) and more are coming every week.

In honor of the spring flora I thought I’d highlight a particularly tall and striking specie, the pedestal sink. These vestiges of old houses and public restrooms are quite popular nowadays. However unlike other materials I have written about pedestal sinks don’t have any particularly fascinating history. They were created to be cheap and space saving.

People of the early 1900’s remembered (or still were) tucking the day’s paper under their arm and trudging out to the outhouse. In a Buffalo January I’m not sure many people made it through the title of the day’s top headline.

Pedestal sinks became commonplace from the late 1800’s until about 1930’s as indoor bathrooms became standard. Prior to municipal water and sewage, indoor bathrooms (ie chamber pots) were discouraged as smelly and unhygienic. Bathrooms, as we know them, were generally only available to wealthier households, and those Victorian-era bathrooms were typically large, ornate affairs with sinks built into expensive cabinetry. As the average Joe acquired a head in his home, he had much less space and money and so the pedestal sink was introduced to meet his needs. A simple affair, they were mostly made of enameled cast iron, a combination that lasts forever. But like many peasant items (e.g. bread) the pedestal sink became fashionable, artistic and expensive as well. It is funny that today these are so expensive.

So this brings me back to why people adore them so much. I guess there are several reasons. There are the old house buffs who wouldn’t let a 1890 sink in their 1889 house. There are the hipsters for whom eccentricity is the rule. Did I mention there is a Kermit-the-Frog green toilet! And then there is the largest group, I believe, the sentimentalists. For a love of old stuff, American made stuff, or perhaps the memories of mom, night after night, marching you up to the sink in your jammies, to brush your teeth and comb gum (or tar in my case) out of your hair before bed. Whatever your reason the ReSource has your sink – or will eventually find it.

Here are a few tips I’ve dug up to help you if you are considering a pedestal sink.
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Deconstructing a building is like an architectural gross anatomy lesson. It’s fascinating to see all internal components of a building as layer by layer is peeled away. The most striking feature is their skeletons which (in Buffalo) are almost always composed of long, hefty boards and beams of hemlock. Aged hemlock has a leather-brown patina due to oxidation of the tannins in the wood and a rough splintery texture. Hemlock is by nature a coarse, fibrous wood but as a structural wood it was usually left rough sawn. Cutting through a piece reveals mellow, honey-like color, slightly browner than pine, again because of the high tannin content.

What is probably most impressive about these old hemlock beams is the large widths, thicknesses and lengths. 30 foot long, knot-free, 6”x 6” is common in most old houses. Much of Buffalo ReUse’s hemlock lumber is floor joists, two and three inches by ten or twelve inches and up to twenty feet long. I believe it’s fair to say that Buffalo’s real backbone is hemlock and not steel.

What is hemlock? Tsuga canadensis or Eastern Hemlock is a fast-growing conifer (produces seed-bearing cones) like a pine tree. Despite its name, hemlock is not poisonous but is named “hemlock” because its needles smell similar to the leaves of the deadly poisonous hemlock vine – reportedly the source of bane that killed Socrates. Hemlock is described as “yew-like” because its needles are broad and soft, and more leaf-like. Its bark is deeply fissured and was once considered more valuable than the tree. Leather makers used the bark because of its high tannic acid content and often trees were stripped and left to die.

Hemlocks readily grow to 100 feet tall, and exceptional ones can be 170 feet tall. They grow very densely in cool, humid areas near water, especially around the Great Lakes and the Atlantic sea coasts. Those dense old-growth forests covered the northeast and must have been cursed by the early American pioneers as they hacked their way through them. The density and darkness of old-growth hemlock forests were legendary, and probably the reason why hemlock stands were often the scenes of nefarious meetings and dealings among colonial writers.
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Mr. Mojo risin . . . Mr. Mojo risin . . .

As far as we know Jim Morrison has not been seen skulking around ReSOURCE. Old doors, however, have been seen around the ReSOURCE and are a large part of the inventory. The ReSOURCE has many types of doors, but I thought I’d discuss panel doors since they are the most abundant and common style at the ReSOURCE.

Hello I love you . . .

Panel doors have a long history. The Pantheon in Rome, the world’s oldest building still in use, reportedly has its original panel doors dating to Hadrian’s Rome (~125AD). The design is ingenious, versatile and economical. Panel doors consist of a frame of stiles (vertical pieces) and rails (the cross pieces). The rails and stiles start off the same, the inside profile being cut by one cutter. The ends of the rails (where they join the stiles) are then cut with a complementary cutter so that they fit like a hand in a glove. A square groove inside the stiles and rails allows a panel or a window (light) to be slid in. Mortise and tenon or doweled joints hold it together strongly. This design can be used to make a myriad of styles, 5-panel vertical, 5-panel mixed, 4-panel, 6-panel, etc . . .

Panel doors were not invented just to enable various styles and decoration. They’re a good way to stretch a bit of wood a long way. The panels are thinner than the rails and stiles; this saves wood. Having thick rails and stiles and thinner panels also makes the door lighter and less prone to warping, swelling and shrinking. I expect the esthetic appeal of panels with molded edges, miter joints and raised centers is a happy result of early doorbuilders’ frugality and common sense.

Break on through to the other side . . .

Modern made, solid-wood panel doors are available, but ReSOURCE panel doors are generally made of old growth wood. “So what?” you say? Well, old growth wood is harder, denser, and more resistant to rot – and prettier. Old growth wood came from 200+ year-old trees with a more compacted cellular structure. Additionally the seemingly inexhaustible old growth forests yielded cheap and generous sized pieces of clear (knot-free) wood, so you can now find a 2″ thick door with ¼” panels. Try to find that today! Unfortunately the old growth forests are now confined to tiny parcels of forgotten land and are available by appointment only, such as the Dr. Victor Reinstein Woods in Cheektowaga, so besides superior wood, re-used doors prolong the working life of old growth wood and take pressure off our living forests.

Love me two times, babe . . .

Ask someone to quickly doodle a door and they will almost always draw a four-paneled door. They are timeless and homey. Modern metal, plastic, and engineered wood doors are often stamped or molded to look like they have panels. Some are given a phony wood grain to increase their hominess. In my high school this sort of artificiality was called “posing”; the person being a “poser”. Real doors are a like a friendly doorman welcoming guests, and they just beg to be decorated with Christmas wreaths and such. If you are interested in old panel doors here are some bits of advice.
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Recently Buffalo ReUse uncovered logs and hand-hewn beams in the joists and framing of an old rear-house on Lafayette Ave. These have become the . . . uhm . . . some say . . . ah . . . unnatural . . . objects of Michael’s attention. So they are the ReSource’s first Fire Bell special as it begins its new hours; Thursdays and Fridays 7:30-5 pm, and even a couple more hours on Saturdays 9-5pm.

Michael is mad about these beams and we need Michael’s attention back, so I am channeling all I have absorbed from my dad, who sold cars for 30 years. Here goes. WHAT CAN I DO TO GET YOU INTO THESE HAND HEWN BEAMS AND LOGS?!?!?!

Climb on in, they’re real creampuffs

Hewn in the 1830s these are the real deal. The hemlocks that were felled to make them were already 200 years old when they were made. No chipboard or plantation trees here.

Kick the tenons and run your hands over those adze marks

Workmanship like that hasn’t been seen in 100 years. Master carpenters and their crews hewed away the tree trunk using adzes or broad axes. Each little mark from the stroke of the adze is the craftsman’s signature and mark of quality.

It was like they were made for you!

Each beam or log is an individual. Its size dictated by the size of the tree trunk it came from. As a carpentry project, home addition, or simply on display to show them off, these beauties will set you apart from the pack. They may even make you irresistible to women or men – your choose.

Full warranty guranteed

If you are not fully satisfied the ReUse offers a full money-back guarantee. This is employee pricing and is the best (and only) warranty ever offered by the ReSource.

What a deal!

It’s a buyer’s market and you better hurry because at $25 a linear foot they are going fast. Once Kevin rings the fire bell, it’s over.

So let’s find a new home for these beams. And although Michael usually says “Get it outta here!” he doesn’t for these beams, so we’re saying it for him: Get em outta here!
Ding Ding.

I got . . . ssss . . . steam heat! I got . . . ssss . . . steam heat! Like Gladys in the Pajama Game (an old favorite musical) the ReUse has steam heat. Well, actually the ReUse still has no heat and it’s colder than a witch’s . . . 1950’s bullet bra (insider humor, for another blog entry perhaps)? But the ReUse has radiators! Since they are red hot they sell out ($10+ per fin) almost before they come in.

Their large thermal mass radiates a steady, even heat, long after the boiler has shut off. Some people claim these heating systems are more efficient. With modern weather upgrades to old houses and modern, energy efficiency boilers (they are compatible) it’s possible to efficiently keep your old house nice and cozy. In fact the “Old House Journal” suggests that under these conditions smaller radiators may be just as effective as large ones, freeing up space for other old house artifacts. I find it heartening that many of the radiators were made 50-100 years ago, all in the US and many in Buffalo. As well, reusing them keeps them from the landfill or scrap yard and further utilizes the energy already spent to make them.

Technical stuff aside, I really believe something more emotional draws people to radiators. They’re often quite beautiful. I’ve seen them scrolled with vines, oak leaves, flowers, fleur-de-lis, and such. Those Victorians demanded art in the most humdrum items. And then there are the warm memories (pun intended!) associated with them. I remember mittens and boots drying on them, after a day of sledding – back when kids went out to play.

Once again here are a few tips, based on some informal research, for that person interested in obtaining replacement radiators, re-outfitting an old house with radiators, or installing them in a new house.
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Tin ceilings originated in the mid 19th century so the middle class could have decorative ceilings, mimicking the fancy plaster ceilings popular among European high society. I’ve not heard this said but I imagine they also had a more prosaic function as an inexpensive and permanent way to hide crumbling plaster ceilings. I’ve thought this is why they’re so often found in old stores with high, inaccessible ceilings. The metal also serves as a fire stop between floors.

Their popularity peaked around 1900 and they were virtually nonexistent by about 1920. Today, tin ceilings are back in fashion again. However real ones are hard to find and can be quite expensive. There are some modern versions, but they’re usually made of thinner steel (and (gasp) plastic!), have shallower, simpler designs, and are often made overseas. It’s a personal opinion, but modern tin ceilings lack credibility, the same way a plastic Victorian fireplace mantel does.

Buffalo ReUse has recently reclaimed two authentic tin ceilings. The first set has six by six inch repeating flower pattern on 1½ by 3 foot panels (a rare size). There are 20 panels (160 sq ft). These panels are in good condition with minimal rust and few holes, and importantly, the lapping edges are intact. They do have many coats of paint obscuring the detail.

The second set has an intricate two by two foot pattern set in single two by two foot tiles. The pattern is a deeply recessed (~1/2-1 inch) octagon with a floral design in the middle. The octagon is edged with a Greek Key motif and embellished on the corners with fleur-de-lis–like designs. There are 20 panels (80 sq ft). Their condition is variable. Some are rusted through. There is some denting and bending and of course many coats of paint.

I’m not just a spokesman – I’m a customer. I have rescued an old tin ceiling and installed it in my kitchen, and here are a few ideas/advice on how tin ceilings can be fixed and reused.
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