Cutting Crystal

If the glass is made from 24% Lead Crystal, it can be Cut with a pattern and Polished.  Only the very finest quality mouth blown glass is sold Plain, because cutting can be used to ‘cut out’ any blemishes!

Our Blenheim Square Lead Crystal Panelled Decanter - A popular item and a perfect example of the fine Cut Crystal items that we have available to purchase.

Although crystal can be cut by machine, the Setting Up of the machine requires that many thousands of pieces are cut.  Crystal can also be Pressed by hand or machine, the cuts are very ‘soft’ and appear only on inexpensive crystal or the base of tankards etc.  Below, we describe the sequence of events for Hand Cut Lead Crystal.

To start production, the Cutter draws lines onto the glass, to equally segment the glass area.

The Cutter uses a variety of Wheels and Stones, impregnated with Carborundum or Diamond.  Different thicknesses of Wheels/Stones are used, to create different thicknesses of lines.  Our Inverness Panelled Crystal ranges use two different thicknesses, one for the majority of the cuts and the other to form the ‘dimples’ (named Olives) beneath the Panel.

An alternative form of Cutting, sometimes known as Engraving, is with a Copper Wheel.  A thin Copper Wheel is used by a Copper Wheel Engraver and fantastic designs can be achieved.

Cutting Wheels have water constantly running down the wheel as the cutter works, to keep the glass cool and stop it from heating and shattering.

We do not offer a ‘Pressed’ Cut glass (other than the pattern found underneath some products E.G. a Star in the base of a Tankard).  This form of decoration results in ‘soft’ cuts.  Our cutters use diamond impregnated wheels, resulting in crisp lines.