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Tips from Janet:   Know Your Tools—Pliers

Tips from Janet: Know Your Tools—Pliers

I just went to the retail display where we keep pliers.  There were 7 different ones.  So many pliers—so many uses!  Or just a little difference, like the width of the jaws that someone might prefer.  

Your first plier should be a breaker/grozer. Double duty! Their primary function is to grasp the glass securely on one side of a score when breaking it apart. Both jaws have serrated teeth to assist in their second duty, grozing.

Second pair you should buy is probably a running plier. This plier is designed to apply pressure under a score causing the break to follow (run) along the score line. Metal ones have the advantage of being adjustable for the thickness of the glass you are working with. Plastic also available.

Breakers. These have straight jaws and are designed to grasps the glass to assist in breaking long thin pieces of glass. The wide jaws meet only at the tip and not serrated.

Search: 30 results found for "pliers" – Stained Glass Express

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Janet's Tips: Why the Heck is Lampworking called lampworking??

Janet's Tips: Why the Heck is Lampworking called lampworking??

tipsfromjanetI originally wrote this blog in 2013. I am not sure why we used this picture of unrelated glass, but I was way younger so I'm keeping it.   Lampworking is also called flame working or torch working or bead making. All those words make sense to the process except Lampworking which is the official name of the process. So, I looked it up. It is called lampworking because way back when this process started, they did it by oil-fueled lamps while blowing air into the flame through a pipe. So, there you go! This type of glasswork is where a torch is primarily used to melt the glass. Once it is molten, it is formed by shaping with tools and hand movements. Lampworking is different from glassblowing in that glassblowing uses a furnace called a glory hole as the primary heat source. The methods today use torches that burn propane or natural gas for the fuel. It is mixed with air or pure oxygen as the oxidizer. MAPP gas in portable canisters can be used.
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