Mastering Difficult Stained Glass Cuts
You're getting pretty good at the basics of scoring and breaking stained glass, but you've run into some problems with difficult cuts that seem impossible. There are techniques that will make difficult cuts in stained glass seem like cutting butter.
Scoring disturbs the molecules in stained glass, so you want to separate it immediately after scoring.
- Narrow Strips: A straight strip that is scored less than an inch away from the edge of the stained glass, it will be difficult to pull it apart with your hands. Use running pliers and align the bump in the pliers head on the score line and squeeze. This causes the score to run and break apart
- Straight Lines: When cutting straight lines on larger pieces, you can line up the score line along a table edge. Hold one side firmly on the table while using your other hand to pull down and away, snapping the pieces of the stained glass apart.
- Small Squares: If you have several squares of stained glass to cut, use a straight edge to measure the width, run your score line, then break the strip away using running pliers, breaking pliers, or your hands.
After you have your stained glass strip, measure and score across the strip the same amount as the width of the strip. You can quickly line up each score line on the edge of your Norton board and, one at a time, push down and snap off the small square stained glass pieces.
- Curves: If you are scoring clear stained glass, you can lay your glass on top of your pattern, smooth side up. Cut your stained glass down to just a little bigger than the piece which your are cutting - about 1/2 inch extra all the way around the piece.
Score all the way around the piece, just inside the black line of your pattern. Next, score several diverging lines from the pattern line to the edge of the stained glass. Break away pieces a little at a time. Never try to break away too large of a piece of stained glass because it will shatter.
- Circles: You can cut a nearly perfect circle out of stained glass by using a similar process as for curves. Score all the way around the circle, just inside the black line and then score several lines from the circle to the outside edge of the glass. Start breaking away small sections of the stained glass
- Concave Curves - Concave curves are difficult to break out of stained glass, especially if they are deep. Again, you will start by scoring just inside the black line of the pattern on the smooth side of the stained glass. From that inside line, gradually add several more similar cuts until you are on the outer edge of the highest ends of the curve. Use the ball end of a pencil cutter to gently tap runs into the scores; then break away one piece at a time from the outside, in. Sometimes it helps to rock each end of the score back and forth before pulling apart the curved stained glass pieces.
- V-cuts: V-cuts are next to impossible unless you happen to have a special band saw for cutting stained glass. Otherwise, a v-cut like you would have in a heart shape should be redesigned so it has a softer curve instead of a point.
Don't be discouraged if once in a while the natural tendency is for the stained glass to just go ahead and break straight across.
More Articles
Stained Glass Copper Foil Technique
Stained Glass Lead Came Method
How To Properly Solder Your Stained Glass
Painting Stained Glass Is Not As Mysterious As It Seems
Supplies For Getting Started In Stained Glass
Stained Glass Art For Your Garden
Installing A Stained Glass Window
Products And Downloads
Free Videos
More Articles And News
... materials, in their proper proportions are then mixed in a large vat and heated to 2500? F turning the mixture into molten glass which can then be processed in a variety of ways depending on the effect desired for a particular piece of stained glass. For instance, to make the glass used in stained glass ...
What You Need To Know To Buy Stained Glass
... rectangles of about 1" x 2" of the glass that you do purchase along the way. Label them with the manufacturer's name, the color, and the universal order number which stands for the name, color and texture. When you order stained glass by phone or by mail order, the glass can be sent to you in 12" x 12" ...
John La Farge, American Stained Glass Artist
... prominent assignment, however, was in 1876 when he was commissioned to handle the d cor for the entire interior of the Trinity Church in Boston. That accomplishment represents a milestone in American art as it was the first real mural painted here. Many art historians consider his painting on the end ...
Stained Glass Workshop Safety Tips
... around glass, but tools and chemicals can also be hazardous. When you go to your stained glass supplier, do not bring small children. There is too big of a risk of being cut by glass and being exposed to toxic fumes, dust and lead. Most stained glass warehouses post signs requesting that small children ...
Beginning Stained Glass Class And What You Should Expect To Learn
... out different tools. For the copper foil stained glass project, you will use flux to prepare the foil for applying solder to it. You will learn how to use a soldering iron and how to "tin" the foil by applying a flat coat of solder to all surfaces of the foil. Next, you will go back over it and apply ...
 BBC News | Russia returns stained glass to German church The Associated Press - FRANKFURT AN DER ODER, Germany (AP) — Six medieval stained-glass windowpanes looted by the Red Army during World War II were returned to a German church ... In pictures: German stained glass Russia returns stained glass windows to Germany Spoils of war return home |
New Dunsmuir Mercantile restores historic building Mount Shasta Herald, CA - “I’m an antique collector and stained glass crafter. I was looking for a place to enjoy fishing, working with stained glass. Now I am embarking on the first ... |
Glassware and More at Pearl River Glass Studio show Jackson Clarion Ledger, MS - Church windows and architectural glass are the studio's standby, but new branches can reach new markets. "Not everybody can afford to buy a stained glass ... |
Russia Returns Stained Glass Windows to Frankfurt Church Deutsche Welle, Germany - Russia has returned six medieval stained glass window panes looted by the Soviet Red Army in 1945 to a church in Frankfurt an der Oder, on the Polish border ... |
Hemet area church picking up pieces after vandalism Press-Enterprise, CA - Greg Hepner, was preparing for a service when he discovered a brick had been thrown through the church's 100-year-old stained-glass window. ... |
Stained glass windows returned The Gazette (Montreal), Canada - Six stained-glass window panes missing since World War II returned home to a church in the eastern German town of Frankfurt an der Oder, 67 years after they ... |
 MLive.com | Hackley Public Library to celebrate stained-glass restoration MLive.com, MI - They work for Stained Glass By Shenandoah Inc. of Front Royal, Virginia. MUSKEGON — Now that the stained-glass windows at Hackley Public Library have been ... |
 Union of Catholic Asian News | CHINA Pioneering Course Aims To Inculturate Christian Art In China ... Union of Catholic Asian News, Asia - They are learning the principles and practical skills of silk-screen printing, stained glass production and bookbinding from German Divine Word Brother ... |
Backward Glances for Nov. 20 Hudson Sun, MA - Contract to install new stained glass windows in the downstairs Chapel of Our Blessed Mother in St. Michael’s Church was awarded to Colonial Stained and ... |
Our Lady of the Fields, No. 4 Journal of American Medical Association (subscription), IL - At age 14, he was apprenticed to an artisan who made and restored stained glass windows, and this experience was probably the first major influence on his ... |