Topic: Cut Glass Wine Frosted Bowl Faceted Stem

[Ekimp]

I really don’t think those fine lines that I showed in reply 8 were from any brush, even if they’d had access to synthetics.

It would be interesting to read the acid etching piece in your link flying free, but it only lets me view up to page 72, coincidently B for Brushes (says synthetic fibres only introduced in late 1960s, til then different types of animal hair). I agree with Paul, I don’t think any organic brush is going to last long enough to be useful in an acid aggressive enough to etch glass.

Another point against brushing is that I’ve read that when in the acid baths for etching (probably talking about needle etched stuff) the item had to be agitated to move the acid around and the progress checked. I think if the acid was brushed on there might be an inconsistent finish due to lack of control of quantities and timings.

Thanks for the new images.
I don’t think it was acid etched after cutting as they would have had to paint resist into the cuts and I think it looks too neat for that, in places the resist wouldn’t have kept to the line so precisely. That bleeding into the mitre in the middle photo could also come from an abrasive reaching into the cut. The bleeding indicates frosting after cutting, but to me, the neatness of the line indicates it wasn’t acid...bringing me back to an abrasive.

The finish does look more acid etched in these photos but where the lighting is better in the original photos it looks more like from abrasive. It might be down to lighting as it is very difficult to capture in a photo. If I rotate the middle new photo 90 degrees (so it’s the right way up), I think I can see a (now) horizontal direction to the finish...but only just.

A good place to look for clues is where the finish transits from frosted to gloss - but without a bordering cut - often where the bowl meets the foot.

[flying free]

Paul, yes you could be right about that.  It just doesn't make sense at all to etch after cutting does it?

Ekimp I think looking at photos can distort and that makes it difficult to tell. However acid etching was used from the mid 1850s as presumably although dangerous and difficult it was quicker and easier to abrade large sections as opposed to mechanical abrasion. 
Difficult.
m

[glassobsessed]

As I tend to play devils advocate I would point out that metals can be turned into fibres... Saying that they would not be porous and may well do a poor job in this context, they would not provide a good reservoir of acid.

Sure I read somewhere that acid fuming is possible too, would assume that would produce a very even finish.

[Paul S.]

speaking of 'fuming' - cabinet makers used .880 ammonia to fume oak (it's the tannic acid it reacts with) - and depending on length of exposure it can make the wood turn almost black, but it's not really a method for delicate work - more a sort of blanket treatment.           I know nothing about acid work on glass, but get a feeling there might be a similar situation here, unless of course it was possible to use a resist, though acid fumes are presumably more dangerous than just the liquid ??               Don't get the feeling glass workers in the Victorian period were given much thought re H. & S., and bearing in mind Wilkinson's problems using acid to remove grinding marks - which brought about his demise - it's a wonder that more of them weren't killed by acid fumes.

[Ekimp]

Sure I read somewhere that acid fuming is possible too, would assume that would produce a very even finish.

There is a bit here describing the fuming process at the beginning of ‘Glass Embosing’ page 494. ‘...the fumes are of a very poisonous nature’ not very pleasant

The American stationer, volume 37, 1895, Relating to plate glass, talks about acid etching, fuming, and obscuring by hand grinding with emery powder.
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=0VJYAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA496&dq=etch+glass+emery+powder&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiZ7-bY1-3zAhVLecAKHTyZB-44FBDoAXoECAMQAw#v=onepage&q=etch%20glass%20emery%20powder&f=false