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The basic thing to remember here is that Lead Came stretches. That really is the base fact in deciding when to use what.

Use Foil:

1. Lamp Shades should always be done in foil. All those beautiful Tiffany Studio lamp shades were done with foil. He was the master so just do what he did! If you make a lamp with lead, over time it will collapse unless you reinforce the lead. That just adds to the work and to the weight.

2. Lead is heavy. If weight is an issue, use foil.

3. Items like jewelry boxes should be foiled. It is way easier to deal with the angles with foil.

4. When you have little pieces that will be lost in the lead, use foil. You can even mix. A lead came panel can have a section that is foiled. Most little projects are done with foil.

Use Lead:

1. When you are making a project that will be in the weather, use came. Came can be puttied/cemented to make it more weather tight.

2. Geometrical patterns lend themselves nicely to lead came.

3. Really large piece, like Church window are nice with lead came because of the size. The boldness of the came fits the size. To get the bold width with foil would be difficult and probably irregular. Came stays nice and uniform.

this picture from Alamy.com

4.  Little suncatchers are sometimes made with

hobby came, which is a tiny came.  Simple ones.  It is fast.  

4. Even though lead stretches, it takes time. Most Church windows do not need to be releaded for 100 years. When you see that a window is budging at the bottom, you can usually bet that it is old, and the lead has expanded and contracted over time and the weight of the glass has been pushing down during this unseen activity. If you used foil on a window that is exposed to weather and weight, you may see stress cracks in the glass.

Criteria	Copper Foil	Lead Came
Design Complexity	Intricate, detailed patterns	Simpler, larger geometric designs
Size of Project	Small to medium pieces	Larger panels or structural pieces
Structural Strength	Lightweight, non-load-bearing items	Heavier, load-bearing installations
Style Preference	Thin solder lines, modern styles	Bold lines, traditional styles

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

I 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.