I have to paint the window frames on our 45 year old house. The paint is
very thick, but in *very* bad order, with great flakes coming off in
some parts, solid as rock in other parts. In the past, I've rubbed down
and scraped, rubbed down again, then primed, undercoated etc. ... thus
really making the problem worse I guess.

I'm wondering about completely stripping one or two of the frames this
year, but the only way I can think of is to use a blow torch: are these
still used? I used to hate using a torch (very difficult to get a
uniform result, and the dangers of fire, scorching, cracked glass etc.),
but I hate Nitromors even more (*also* very difficult to get a uniform
result, and absolutely horrible stuff).

Can you still get a blow torch? Has any great technological advance
been made in this field since I last used one (20 odd years ago)?

BTW I don't think any power sander could do the job: I may be wrong?

Cheers
John