Stained Glass Tools & Prepping Your Workspace
Are you ready to start your stained glass journey? Whether you are a stained glass beginner or an experienced artist, having the right tools and workspace is essential for creating beautiful works of art.
The more specialized tools will allow you to be more efficient as well improve your capabilities of what you will be able to create. You will typically find yourself in need of more specialized tools when you start creating intricate patterns, high volumes of pieces, or larger three-dimensional stained glass using lead came.
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Safety Glasses
Safety glasses and Heat resistant gloves should always be worn when working with glass. When cutting glass you can create very sharp edges which can cut extremely easily. Safety glasses should be worn to protect you eyes from glass shards that may pop off when breaking glasses pieces that you cut. Both will also provide great protection while soldering as well.
Glass Oil Cutter
A Toyo Pistol Grip Glass Cutter is my cutter of choice. It allows you to make a shallow score in the glass piece which allows you break the glass along the score line. There are other popular brands likeStudio Pro, and Fletcher and are made in a variety of styles. The pistol grip glass cutter is held just as the name suggests and a comfort/pencil grip is held like a pencil of course.
I advise against getting one from a hardware store and instead choosing know for working well with stained glass as it will give you better results. Toyo has great glass cutters in both the pistol grip and pencil grip form that are both quality and durable. Novacan makes oil to fill the cutter with which provides lubrication but if you are out and need to improvise, kerosene, 3 in 1 oil, or any light oil can work well.
Running pliers
This is an invaluable tool for glass cutting that is heavily relied upon. Running pliers open score lines using even pressure acting as a fulcrum by putting pressure on both sides of the scoreline. They usually have an adjustable screw which accommodates different glass thicknesses. They are usually equipped with a rubber tip to protect the glass during use and are good for straight, slightly curved cuts, and for big sheets. An extremely useful tool no one should be without.
Breaking / Grozing Pliers
Breaking pliers are also used to break the glass but in a different way than running pliers. Grozing is the removal of nibs of glass with the serrated edges of the pliers’ jaws. Running pliers are better at nibbling on curved cuts but breaking pliers can also come in handy in other areas.
Glass Grinder
Okay so you’ve cut out all your pieces, excellent! But like any human working with a material as fragile as glass your cuts aren’t flawless and your project doesn’t fit together perfectly. This is where an amazing tool called a grinder comes in and saves your day and LOTS of time (the alternative is hand grinding with a stone like they did in medieval times…no thanks).
A glass grinder is a kind of wet sander specifically made for sanding glass. It has a diamond drill bit that helps slowly sand off the unwanted excess glass on your pieces and turns them into perfect puzzle pieces that fit together. I recommend these grinders by gryphon or Glasstar as their parts are largely available online and in stores.
Copper Foil Fid Tool
A copper foiling tool or fid tools is essentially a burnishing tool which is used to press the foil down onto the glass and ensure full contact. It will eliminate any gaps between the glass and the foil which is essential for creating good soldering joint between glass pieces. There are many different ways to improvise this tool, one of which is chopsticks, as an alternative to purchasing one.
Copper Foil
Copper foil tape is applied to the edge of the glass pieces. The foil is what allows the solder to bond two or more pieces of glass together. Copper foil is a quick and easy way to start creating beautiful stained glass. Beginners should start with standard 7/32 copper foil which fits most standard glass thicknesses.
Flux & Flux Brush
Flux serves many purposes when it is applied with a brush to the metal pieces you intend to join with solder. It acts as a cleaning agent which removes any oxidation on the metal to provide better contact, it helps the solder solder flow better, and finally it seals out any air preventing further oxidation of the solder join. All of this ensures a long lasting secure bonding of two metal pieces. This Novacan Flux works great.
Solder
Solder is the what is used to bond the two glass pieces together by melting it onto the copper foiling. There isn’t much to solder but it is a good idea to make sure you use a quality, pure 60/40 solder like the one sold by canfield for your stained glass projects. This means it is 60% tin and 40% lead which provides a solid bond of two metal pieces.
