is it possible to laser engrave lead crystal?

[mark walker]

Hi Mark. as far as I know it is not a good way to go. The lead content can cause the glass to break and if not actualy breaking the glass can give some unpredicted results when lasered. Different glass has different lead content so while you may get away with some glass it will not be the same with all. Sorry but don’t know more than this!

Regards, Mark.

[ANDREW S]

Mark
I can’t speak about Laser, but I engrave Lead and all other types of Glass all the time Never had a problem with any types.
I use a sandblasting method
Don’t really know wet her this will help you
Cheers
Andrew

[Rodney Gold]

It’s possible to engrave , but risky due to the way a laser engraves glass , it thermally shocks it abd causes localized chipping , due to the lead content and structure of the glass , its more likely that stress cracks etc will propogate. You can use wet toilet paper over the are you engrave to lessen this and smooth the engraving.

[Mark Shipley]

Thanks for the replies…

Wet toilet paper 😮 who’d have thought that ???

I’ll give it a try and post the results whatever happens.

Back in a flush 😳

Mark

[Mike Null]

Laser engraving lead crystal or any glass for that matter is less than desirable. The heat from the laser causes the glass to fracture which is how the image is produced. The resulting image has an appearance that is shallower (and cannot be made deeper) than etched glass and you can detect the fractures as tiny as they are.

You might consider laser engraving on low cost glass but I just refuse to do it.