A chat with an old timer at the glass yard got me thinking about old school tricks

I was picking up a load of 1/4 inch tempered last week, and the guy loading my truck, must've been in his 70s, started telling me about how they used to cut big lites by hand before the big CNC tables. He said they'd use a straightedge and a single-wheel cutter, and the real skill was in the 'feel' of the score, not just the pressure. He mentioned they'd sometimes use a drop of kerosene on the score line to help it run clean on tricky annealed stuff. It made me realize how much of that hands-on knowledge is just gone now, with everything being programmed and automated. Anyone else ever learn an old method like that, maybe from a retired glazier?

3 comments

3 Comments

uma_baker9929d ago

Wait, is tempered glass what he was talking about cutting by hand? I was always told you can't cut tempered glass at all after it's been through the oven, it just shatters. Maybe he meant they were cutting the big pieces before tempering, like on the annealed stock? That kerosene trick is wild though, I've heard of using a little lighter fluid on a tough score to get it to run.

brown.willow9d ago

Did your uncle ever have to deal with a big sheet that just WOULD NOT break clean? I watched a friend of mine try to cut some thick annealed glass for a coffee table top once and it was a NIGHTMARE. He scored it perfectly, or so he thought, and then when he tried to snap it the thing just ran a crack halfway down the wrong direction. He ended up having to stop the crack with a tiny drop of superglue at the end of his score line just to salvage it. That kerosene thing makes sense for running a score in cold weather though. Glass gets so finicky when the temperature drops.

tarajenkins28d ago

My uncle was a glazier for forty years and he said the same thing about the kerosene. He also swore by breathing on a cold score line to warm it up just a fraction before trying to run the break. Said it made all the difference on a drafty jobsite in January.