[CHAPTER II]
Cutting (elementary)—The Diamond—The Wheel—Sharpening—How to Cut—Amount of Force—- The Beginner's Mistake—Tapping—Possible and Impossible Cuts—"Grozeing"—Defects of the Wheel—The Actual Nature of a "Cut" in Glass.
No written directions can teach the use of the diamond; it is as sensitive to the hand as the string of a violin, and a good
workman feels with a most delicate touch exactly where the cutting edge is, and uses his tool accordingly. Every apprentice counts on spoiling a guinea diamond in the learning, which will take him from one to two years.
Most cutters now use the wheel, of which illustrations are given (figs. 1 and 2).
Figs. 1 and 2.
The wheels themselves are good things, and cut as well as the diamond, in some respects almost better; but many of the handles are very unsatisfactory. From some of them indeed one might suppose, if such a thing were conceivable, that the maker knew nothing of the use of the tool.
For it is held thus (fig. 5), the pressure of the forefinger both guiding the cut and supplying force for it: and they
give you an edge to press on (fig. 1) instead of a surface! In some other patterns, indeed, they do give you the desired surface, but the tool is so thin that there is nothing to grip. What ought to be done is to reproduce the shape of the old wooden handle of the diamond proper (figs. 3 and 4).