Janael vs. Rômulo: cutting a mirror by hand without touching the template

The challenge

Cut a mirror exactly to one of two templates in 20 minutes, cut only (no edging), without laying the template on the glass.

It looked like the easiest challenge and turned into the most technical. The hard part wasn't the cut, it was transferring the template to the mirror without touching it. The judges suggested measuring with circles and quadrants. Rômulo got closer to the template but his mirror cracked during break-out; Janael's didn't crack, but he mirrored the drawing. The judge measured with calipers and the panel called it: a tie. The finale decides everything.

Moments

• Janael tells how he started: building vanities for his wife's salon, then making the mirrors himself because buying them made the product too expensive.
• Judge Rui sketches circles to show how he would approximate the shape without touching the template.
• Rômulo skips breaking out first, the score runs inward and the mirror cracks.
• The toughest judge pulls calipers out of his pocket to measure the difference.
• Leandro: "with the Router Glass I cut that mirror in about a minute".

Lessons from the bench

• Without the template on the glass, measure first: at least three key dimensions, then the curves.
• On a curved piece, break out the mirror before making the relief cuts on the sides, or the score runs inward.
• Nibbling a tiny sliver at the end tends to bend what was straight: take off a wider strip when you can.