How to Engrave on Glass at Home?
Glass is one of the most beautiful—and trickiest—materials to engrave. Whether you're creating personalized gifts, decorating home items, or exploring engraving as a creative hobby, knowing how to work with glass makes all the difference. One of the biggest challenges? Choosing the right bits. The type of bit you use can determine whether your design turns out smooth and delicate or ends up scratched and uneven. In this guide, we’ll walk you through how to engrave glass at home and help you select the best tools for clean, precise results every time.
Steps To Engrave On Glass At Home
Glass is one of the most beautiful materials to work with, and by engraving it, you can customize your things to be different and uniques. The best part is that it’s very easy to do and with just a few materials! Let me show you how with our new engraving pen.
1. Prepare Your Engraving Area
The first and most important thing you have to do when engraving on glass is to take the right safety measures since engraving glass can create hazardous glass dust, which can be harmful to your health if inhaled. To ensure your safety, it's crucial to take the necessary precautions. Here are a few tips to keep in mind:
- Work in a well-ventilated area. This will help to reduce the amount of glass dust in the air and keep you safe.
- Wear protective gear. A dust mask, eye protection, and gloves can go a long way in preventing injury or illness from glass dust.
- Clean up thoroughly. After you've finished engraving, be sure to clean up any glass dust that may have accumulated on your work surface and in the surrounding area.
- Dispose of glass waste properly. Avoid sweeping or vacuuming glass dust, as this can cause it to become airborne. Instead, use a damp cloth to wipe up the dust and dispose of it in a sealed container.
2. Choose the Right Bits
Glass requires specific types of engraving bits to avoid cracking or scratching. Diamond-tipped bits or carbide bits are your best options—they’re designed for precision on hard, smooth surfaces like glass. The finer the bit, the more delicate and detailed your engraving will be. Use larger bits for outlining and filling in broader shapes, and smaller ones for fine lines or lettering. If you're using a Resparked engraving pen, check the included bit guide to match the right bit to your design goals.
- Ball Tips: you can create the most precise design since you don’t need to use sharpness. They last even longer! Depending on the thickness of the ball you use, you’ll get softer or stronger strokes.
- The Square bits will help you create medium to thick strokes. Use it slightly in angle to make the most of the bit and get incredible results. What you can do: Medium lines, perfect for creating movement effects in your designs.
- Pincel Tips: just for the looks, it seems like these are the most useful bits to use in the glass, but sadly they are not. That doesn’t mean you’re not going to use them. With it, you can fill in any design in a blink of an eye. What you can do: Precise and thick lines, fill in designs, or create big strokes.
3. Get to Know Your Rotary Tool
Before jumping into the glass itself, spend a few minutes familiarizing yourself with your rotary tool or engraving pen. Practice on a piece of scrap glass or an old jar to get a feel for how the tool handles. Try different speeds, pressure levels, and grip angles. Remember—glass is fragile. Always let the tool do the work and use light, even pressure. If your tool has adjustable speeds, start low and increase only as needed for more control.
4. Choose your design
Once you’ve found the perfect design and the item to engrave, the pro-tip here is to tape it on the inside and start tracing carefully the design.
You can make so many designs and customize a lot of glass surfaces, this technique comes pretty handy when gift-giving.
5. Make a stencil or Outline your design
If you want to have a more precise finish, with a wide painter’s tape cover the design and make sure the pieces overlap. then cut out the inside of the design.
Once you carefully peeled the tape off the paper and placed it onto the glass, you can start tracing the outline to make it perfect.
