Finishing

After being annealed and slowly cooled over two days, all work emerges from the kiln with an extra bit of glass where the piece was attached to the punty rod.  This connection point (shown here on a Bloom) needs to be cut off using a saw with a diamond blade, then carefully ground away, preserving the line of the work.

After cutting off the bulk of the punty, Michael uses a belt sander (exclusively designed for glass) to wet sand the connection point.

After the connection is sanded perfectly smooth, Bloom that require a satin or matte finish are carefully sandblasted, often with certain sections masked.

Sandblasting uses extra fine silicon carbide grit to remove the top surface layer of the glass, which gives the work a matte surface.  Depending upon how the work is blasted, it can also be used to bring back detail in patterns that exist just underneath the surface of the glass.

After sandblasting, Bloom are carefully washed to remove grit and prepare the surface for sealing.  Here two Bloom have been sealed and left to dry overnight.

A Foglio right out of the annealer.  Note the extra glass on the bottom of the piece that connected it to the punty.  This will be removed and the bottom fully polished.

The punty glass is being cut off with a diamond blade.

Next, grinding/polishing disks with grits from coarse to very fine are used to progressively grind the bottom with a finer and finer finish until ready for the final polish. 

After having the punty connection cut off, Michael uses a wet grinding wheel plated with diamonds to grind the bottom perfectly flat.

Michael carefully checks the alignment of the Foglio frequently during the finishing process to ensure the work sits correctly and is perfectly flat through all the grinding and polishing steps.

The edges of all work receive a carefully polished bevel.

Throughout the finishing process, the work is carefully blown off and inspected.