Stained Glass Tools - Pliers
As is usual with stained glass tools, there’s never one single one when you could have a fist full… and pliers are no exception.
Grozing pliers are particularly useful tools and have two uses. Use them as breaking pliers by lining up the end of the pliers along your scoreline and snapping the waste glass off, or use the serrated edges in the jaws to remove stubborn nubs of glass during cutting.
Breaking pliers are as their name suggests, for breaking pieces of glass off at the scoreline. I’ve never owned a pair, as I find the grozing pliers are more than adequate for this job.
Running pliers or cut-running pliers have an ingeniously shaped jaw that bends round a central high point which lines up with your scoreline. Squeezing the handle together gently creates pressure on both sides of the cutline and opens the score.
There are two types of running pliers – metal and plastic.
The metal ones are far more robust and have plastic coated jaws to prevent chipping. They also have a thumb screw adjustment to enable you to control the amount of pressure applied to the score and to accommodate thicker glass.
The plastic running pliers are perfectly adequate, but don’t last as long and aren’t as strong as the metal ones.
Lead nippers are used to cut lead came, although I’ve always used a lead knife to do this job and have never owned a pair.
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