Bill
Yeah, I'm sure that happens, but I think you're going to see large  
versions of hand shears, versus an actual pair of bench shears. The  
bench shears are notoriously stiff because they need to be, so as not  
to twist the sheet metal down between them instead of cutting it.
In your described activity, the glass being cut is hanging vertically  
and the shears would be held tilting upward at an angle to cut the  
glass, but keep a safe distance to protect the user's gloved hands.

I think the size of the shears is what we're disputing. We're  
probably both correct.

Cheers,
Wes

In Chicago and at:
http://galootapalooza.org/

On Oct 4, 2010, at 10:45 AM, Bill Taggart wrote:

>
>
> ::-----Original Message-----
> ::From: WesG [mailto:wesg@g...]
> ::Sent: Monday, October 04, 2010 11:34 AM
> ::To: w.taggart@v...
> ::Cc: 'cowtown_eric'; oldtools@r...
> ::Subject: Re: [OldTools] weekend trash/treasures
> ::
> ::Bill,
> ::I've seen what you're describing done with *hand* shears,
> ::(tin snips)
> ::but I can't imagine anybody hefting a pair of twenty-plus pound
> ::shears sideways and clipping semi-molten glass.
> ::That's not to say that it can't be done, but since the glass is
> ::oozing in a vertical direction and these shears weigh A LOT and they
> ::have no secure means of holding them... I'm going to call a
> ::"technical foul" and await a photograph as proof that what you say
> ::actually happens in the real world.
> ::The gauntlet has been dropped.
>
>
> Weeeeeeellll - I'm nearly positive I have seen depictions of similar -
> perhaps not identical, but similar - shears used in the making of  
> olde-timey
> window glass via the cylinder method.  They would blow a large  
> cylinder of
> glass, and cut the end off.  Then the shears would be used to cut the
> cylinder up one side, and it would be unrolled, leaving a large  
> rectangle of
> flat glass.
>
> I'm searching for a decent depiction of the process.  I've found it
> described in texts all the way back to the 18th Century, but no good
> pictures or drawings yet.
>
> - Bill T.
>

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