Tips on cutting murrini

[playswithfire104]

OK I'm convinced murrini are mad cool. Any tips on cutting them without a glass saw to get consistant sizes and not have them fly across the room?


ETA: Or wold someone with a saw volunteer to cut mine inexchange for keeping some?

[RSimmons]

What diameter are you trying to work with? The thinner 'milifiori' styles can be cut with nippers or disc cutters. Just put your finger on the end that you are cutting and it'll stay put. Drew Frits puts the end in a thick washer in a table surface and then cuts behind it with nippers for consistent thickness. This is OK for up to 5-8 mm or so. If you're cutting 1/2 inch complex face cane or something like that you'll want to use a saw.

Robert

[playswithfire104]

That washer method sounds like something I need to try. My nippers don't always cut straight and I get a piece that has a diagonal side and a flat side. I'm not sure how thick they are I'll have to check after work. Thanks for the idea!

[Lea Zinke]

OK, learned this longggggg ago in a class with Pati Walton:

(Right-handers) Hold murrini cane in left-hand, nippers in right -- rolled up in the front bottom edge of your t-shirt!!! Catches all the little slices that would otherwise fly across the room!!!

HTH!
Lea

[tammydownunder]

I cut them into an old coffee can or jar holding the murrini in my left hand using my right hand to cut with

[Karen Hardy]

When I cut mine, I position the blade so that the murrini fly
across the room, occasionally hitting the wall, the dog, or in one
case rebounding off the hood and then dropping down my cleavage (4 points! Whoo hooo!).


....I didn't have a good answer for you on how to do this better, so
I decided to just share the fact that I'm a murrini failure too .

Gotta stick together.....

[myrdlebp]

Karen, so when we get to meet you it will be customary to toss murrini in your cleavage?
Like three coins in the fountain, it will be good luck!

[nklt0]

Originally Posted by Karen Hardy

When I cut mine, I position the blade so that the murrini fly across the room, occasionally hitting the wall, the dog, or in one
case rebounding off the hood and then dropping down my cleavage (4 points! Whoo hooo!).

Ok, this is what I do, I lay a towel on the table and point the can vertically down into the towel before cutting as close to the towel as I can.
Kinda like this:
...| <-
------


HTH

Cheers
Nancy

[playswithfire104]

Karen you crack me up! At least i'm not alone.

Tom and Sage Holland told us to always cut them under water. That sounds easier than it is. Tom even cut a small piece in the light under an exhust fan so we could see the glass dust. Not something you want to breathe.

So far the washer idea sounds like the way to go.

[Ofilia]

OMG, Karen, I think your "cleavage catch" is by far the most fun and UNIQUE idea! What a riot.... I've caught how spitting glass there, and it is not so fun.

When I am cutting a few slices with my disc nippers, I have this tall microwave popcorn bowl. You familiar with them? They have these V shaped bottom feet where the murrine roll into, after hitting the inside of the tall bowl. Once in a while, it will go flying away, but eventually I'll find fun surprises around the studio floor.

[Diane (clarus)]

So Ofilia, you use another tool to cut your murrini??????? Let me know if you ever want to sell your Dona tool.......

Everyone else - if you want to see the coolest murrini cutter in the world, check out Ofilia's tool thread in the Gallery, which is a show-and-tell about the Carlo Dona tools. I keep coming back to drool and listen to that sucking sound from my bank account! If you're interested in fine tools, it's the best thread on LE.

I should add - another really cool murrini cutting tool was made by Mike Hansen. There's another thread in the Gallery about home-made tools. Mike is a master at that and made a really cool chopper.

-Diane