Any advice on cutting your own museum glass?

[Chester McCheeserton]

Thanks a lot Drew – appreciate the links.

[Steve Goldstein]

Drew, can the cutter for borosilicate glass be used successfully on window glass? Or does one need two cutters on hand?

[Tin Can]

I use McMaster Carr

https://www.mcmaster.com/cutters/eas...glass-cutters/

[Drew Wiley]

Steve - I don't recommend the same cutter being used for ordinary window glass or common uncoated "picture glass". The thickness and acuteness of angle of the cutter wheels are different. But I do recommend practicing on ordinary cheap glass with its own kind of cutter before messing with expensive coated glass. One needs to become familiar with the correct smooth sound for a cutter stroke, rather than any grating or chattering sound. Correct plier technique also needs to be practiced.

[Ron (Netherlands)]

Ron – i was thinking the lubricant ones but the ones I saw online were still around 20 bucks. Tin Can – I watched that video before posting my question. Vaughn - TY that's super helpful.

Well... for 20 you have a 'Mercedes', but like others here pointed out, you can get one without an oil reservoir for about 5 usd;
as said, I would spend 'a few dollars more' when working on expensive glass

[Willie]

Before you start cutting inspect the glass very carefully for imperfections, bubbles, etc. Museum glass does have some at times and if you see it before cutting you might avoid a final piece with an odd mark over the print/artwork.

[Paul Ron]

here is what a manufacturer recomends for handeling museum glass....

https://tru-vue.com/solution/museum-glass/

you dont need any fancy cutters. get a carbide fletcher, used by professionals

https://www.amazon.com/Fletcher-Patt...9305570&sr=8-3

there are tons of video instructions on the net. practice cutting some scrap glass before doing the museum glass.

[Mark Sampson]

I've long used acrylic for glazing, for the obvious reasons; the weight and fragility of glass. There are several museum-quality, UV-protectant types.

[Chester McCheeserton]

I've long used acrylic for glazing, for the obvious reasons; the weight and fragility of glass. There are several museum-quality, UV-protectant types.

same here, but recently I unwrapped a bunch of older framed works and was able to really look critically, side by side, at the differences in reflection distraction between regular OP-3 Plex, Optium, and Museum glass, and I'm going to try using glass for this project at least and see how it goes.

The works are not being shipped, there is less distracting reflection, (even than optium) and it's significantly less expensive. I'm looking at something called "Artglass" which looks to be slightly cheaper than TrueView's 'Museum Glass'.

If one breaks in the frame or there are other issues, I will go back to acrylic, but am going to try it....

[John Layton]

A few years back I spent six months working in a framing shop...and I'll never forget the day that my boss indicated to me that I'd finally gotten the chops to "graduate" to cutting museum glass - which meant hefting huge pieces of this onto a vertical (Fletcher?) glass cutter. Had to be really careful if I did this before the coffee wore off!