Glass Versus Crystal Door Knobs - What is The Difference ?

By : Cohn Coleman

The beauty of glass or crystal door knobs is unmistakeable - both glass and crystal door knobs are readily available for modern and old style doors. However, what is the real difference? Besides price - what can I expect from glass versus crystal?

FUNDAMENTALS

Most people understand that there is a difference between crystal and glass. Unfortunately, many cannot specifically pinpoint what that exact difference is. Fortunately, the relationship between glass and crystal is actually very simple. Very basically, crystal is the byproduct of the combination of lead and glass. Pure glass is completely devoid of any lead making it lighter, but also more brittle. With the addition of lead, crystal is formed and new properties begin to arise. One big difference is the change in weight between crystal and glass. Glass is often much lighter in weight compared to crystal. Lead is a heavy metal so it is no surprise that adding it to glass will make a weightier compound in crystal.

Leaded Crystal Door Knobs - LookInTheAttic

LEADED KNOBS - AT LOOK IN THE ATTIC

DAYS OF YORE

Another difference is the softness of crystal compared to glass. In addition to being a heavy metal, lead is also known for being very soft and malleable. Where glass usually breaks with the application of too much force, lead allows crystal the ability to be etched, shaped, and chiseled. And as with each property, the more lead there is, the softer the crystal will be. To the eye, the most obvious difference between glass and crystal is the diffraction of light inside. Without lead, glass will allow light to travel through, but when lead is added, light begins to diffract inside causing that rainbow of color that is most often associated with crystals. A prism is the most obvious example of a crystal diffracting light. Also, in the days when glass furnaces were filthy, adding lead assured clear and transparent glass - the molten lead would bind and make impurities nearly invisible - this made it worth the while to add lead - but for really nice crystal - you needed to add a lot of lead.

NOT LIKE IT USED TO BE - JUST A DAB WILL DO YA

Remember Czechloslovokian crystal - with the stickers stating it was 18% lead crystal? We became to believe that crystal had lots of lead - almost 20% lead - however, that is no longer the case. The legal transition from glass to crystal varies from country to country. In Europe, anything with a 10 percent lead content is considered crystal, whereas in the United States of America, anything above a 1 percent lead content is considered crystal. For that matter, any glass may contain trace amounts of lead and be considered crystal. Further, there are some dealers who will not use the term crystal and instead refer to any glass with a lead compound as lead glass, since glass does not, officially, have crystalline properties. But for the most part, the combination of lead and glass is considered crystal. And as mentioned before, more lead means a heavy, softer, and more diffracted crystal. Put simply, the higher the lead content the higher quality the crystal, while glass means no lead.

WHAT TO DO

Occasionally, the difference between the two is usually easy to spot, but knowing the intricate differences between the two can go a long way when making a decision between one and the other. Most likely, with cleaner furnaces and glass - lead is unncessary - and with only a 1% barrier to call glass 'crystal' - it really makes it inconsequential. Buy what you like - and don't worry about the details of glass versus crystal. They are both fragile, clear and beautiful. You can find many styles of glass knobs and crystal pulls online.
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