Stained Glass: The Sun-catching Craft

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CUTTING THE GLASS

Glass cutting is really a simple skill which, for some unknown reason, most folks think of as being cloaked in mystery. With a little practice, though, you'll soon have the technique down pat.

First, purchase a Fletcher Terry No. 2, 7, or 9 glass cutter . . . they should be available at your stained glass supplier for about $2.15 apiece. A trip to a local commercial glass store or framing shop will usually yield a box of free scrap glass, which will be perfect for practice cutting. Then lay a pad of newspapers down on your work surface, and you'll be ready to begin.

Hold the cutter comfortably in the palm of your hand (Fig. 4) and dip its tip in some light oil or turpentine. Then set the scoring wheel close to the edge of the glass, press down firmly, and push it away from you across the glass surface. (Always run the cutter off the opposing edge of the glass, lessening the pressure as you do so, and never go over a score line twice!)

After you've cut a fine groove in the pane, you'll want to break the sections apart carefully. If the score line is straight or gently curving, you can grasp the glass on either side of the score and snap it in two with a downward twist. However, if the cut is more radically curved, tap the underside of the line with the handle of your cutter, and then separate the pieces.

Now odds are some folks are going to tell you that my method of scoring glass is "wrong", or maybe backwards... because I hold and push my tool in a manner that's just about completely opposite to the traditional method practiced by most glass cutters. However, by using the procedure I've described, you'll be running the cutter ahead of your hand (pushing it as you would a tiny wheelbarrow). This will enable you to see exactly where the cutting wheel is going, and you'll find it'll help you follow curved lines around your small patterns with accuracy. Just "push on ahead" and you'll see!

Once you've practiced on scrap window sections, you'll be ready to begin shaping your stained glass. To cut the colored panes, you'll need to apply a little more pressure than was required when working on the "softer" window material. Simply set your stained glass on top of the full-sized pattern (called a "cartoon"), check your lead allowance, and cut to the inside edge of the marker line. Then, as each individual shape is cut out, reposition it on the pattern and check to see whether the black marker line shows all the way around its perimeter.

[EDITOR'S NOTE: You'll find that some stained glass is so nearly opaque that you can't see the pattern through it. In that case, you can draw the shape on pattern paper (or white contact paper), cut it out, and apply the adhesive side directly to the glass. The paper can be peeled off after the glass is cut.]

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