Thanks for the good words and interest. Zoran, I don't remember exactly but do recall seeing something that was for cutting the tops of wine bottles off to make into drinking glasses. I don't recall what it looked like but a search on google for how to make drinking glasses out of wine bottles should give results. Perhaps a bottle could be cut off closer to the bottom. Don't know, but share what you discover.
Now where were we? Ah yes, cutting out the pieces of glass. That blue is beautiful to my eyes. As a little boy forced to go to church on Sundays I was as bored as most little fellows being compelled to endure scratchy wool pants and oak pews unkind to bony little boy butts. No surprise that the sermons were of no interest and the hymns were no hit either. What was of interest was the wood working... the way the beams in the ceiling were fitted together and the colored light of the stained glass windows. The wood and glass are what held my interest and the sense of mysterious spiritual dimension. That is what I took home with me... the beautiful wood and glass and the mystery of spiritual sanctuary. I left behind the dogma with the stern preacher and the hymns with the old ladies. Bad boy, but better than my brother who got caught palming half dollars and quarters while depositing pennies and nickles in the offering plate. Ha! When I got big and could say no to attending church I pursued my interest in wood joinery and the love of colored light led me to becoming a stained glass artisan. And my interest in the spiritual dimension eventually led me to becoming a pipe carrier in the Native American tradition, something akin to what that preacher was doing, but without the dogma. Interesting how things develop in life. My folks thought my going to church would be a good thing. It was, but not in the way they had imagined. Once more the old man digresses.
The blue pieces are cut out roughly and now it is time to clean things up with the diamond glass grinder. This is especially nice for cleaning up inside curves without risky cuts. It takes some time, but saves on glass in the long run. What if you don't have a diamond glass grinder? There were a whole lot of things the artisans of the glass guilds (known as glass mongers) did not have in the middle ages when magnificent rose windows were created in towering cathedrals. No ordering stuff from the glass companies, either. They made everything including the stained glass. Amazing.
One hand tool which can do a lot is called a nipper, sometimes referred to as a nibbler. It resembles a pair of pliers whose jaws touch only at the forward-most part. One jaw is arched, so only a little bit comes together. With it you can kind of munch away at the edge of the glass a little at a time. An inside curve is cut away in stages, with several scores leading up to the innermost one. But I have a glass grinder and will use it. As you can see there is a spindle sticking up which has industrial diamonds along its surface. The grinder top is like a trough so that it can hold water. There is a little platform which sits on top and has a U shaped cut out at the spindle and behind the spindle is a spot for a piece of sponge which draws up water and keeps the spindle lubricated with water... else the diamonds would dull prematurely. Rough edges can be cleaned up, a piece can be trimmed down to make it smaller and inside curves become easy enough to not worry over. Pretty neat tool.
SB(cont.)
