Posted by Gary Dodge on September 23, 2002 at 19:11:42:
In Reply to: New to Staind Glass posted by Jerry on September 23, 2002 at 11:19:45:
Hi Jerry,
I have a feeling that the discrepancy in the methods between the two books is just a matter of perspective. The same movements can be viewed and described in different ways.
Bottom line, you need to create what I call a focus point. That would be an upward force exerted from the underside of the glass directly below the score line, and then while pressing upward on the focal point, (toward the score line), you need to provide downward force on the glass both to the left and right of the score line.
In essence the bending downward is causing the score line to be spread which makes it run through to the back of the glass, ending at the focal point.
If you don't want to get cut, the secret is to close you hands into something similar to a fist. Butt all the fingers tightly together at the second finger segment. The butted fingers create the focus and you wrap your thumbs up over the top of the glass to do the downward bending.
By keeping the fingers of the two hands butted against one another, when the glass breaks it just parts. There are no wild or exaggerated hand movements. In fact, just hold your hands in position after the glass parts and try to cut your right hand with the glass in the left hand or visa verse, you'll find that you can't make it reach the other hand to cut it.
Gary Dodge
: Hi All,
: I'm just starting out with stained glass and have been practicing scoring and breaking with plain old window glass before I attempt it on nice coloured glass. This is an excellent forum and I thought I'd ask for some advice.
: My question is, I've got two books or beginers and am a bit confused with breaking techniques. One book tells you when breaking with the thumb method to pull downward and out-says it's the least likely to cause cuts. Another book tells you to break upward and out, again, least likely to cause cuts.
: Which is the correct way to do this? The practice pieces I've done so far (squares, straight lines, triangles, diamonds) I've used pliers for ALL the breaks as I'm afraid :-) The very first straight line I tried to break caused the glass to shatter as I didn't score deep enough. Glad I used the pliers or my right hand would have been cut to ribbons.
: I'm comfortable with the pliers but I know there's going to be times I'm going to have to do it bare handed. Need to get over my fear of that which should come with more practice, I hope.
: Thanks in advance,
: Jerry