Washing and storing cut glass

Can you put cut glass in the dishwasher?

No, cut glass is hand-wash only, and the makers say so themselves. The Edo Kiriko Cooperative Association's own handling note rules out the microwave, the dishwasher, the drying machine, the oven and direct flame. Kagami Crystal adds that machine detergent left on the surface turns the glass milky white, and that cannot be fixed.

Three things go wrong. Heat: crystal is not heat-resistant glass, and Kagami puts the safe limit at a temperature swing of about 30°C. The Shimadzu Satsuma Kiriko workshop says it more bluntly: pour hot water in and the piece will most likely break. Detergent: machine powder is aggressive and the rinse never clears the cuts, so a haze sits in the pattern. Knocks: things shift around, and Kagami's advice is to keep glass from touching glass or cutlery at all, because those small scratches are where a piece eventually breaks.

How do you wash it by hand?

This is the routine I follow at the shop, in the order the makers set it out.

1. Take off your rings and your watch.
2. Fill a bowl with lukewarm water, roughly body temperature, and add a little neutral detergent.
3. Wash the glass on its own, not in the same water as plates and pans.
4. Use a soft sponge or cloth on the outside. Kagami's list of things that damage the glass: abrasive sponges, metal scourers, cleanser powder.
5. Go over the cut faces with a soft brush. The cooperative suggests a toothbrush, or anything softer than the glass.
6. Clean the inside with a sponge on a handle, rather than twisting a cloth around inside the bowl.
7. Rinse in water at the same temperature you washed in.

How do you dry it without water marks?

Wipe it dry with a soft cloth before it can air-dry, because a water mark is just what the water leaves behind when it evaporates. Stand the piece upside down on a folded tea towel to drain, then go over it while it is still slightly damp. Kagami and Satsuma Kiriko give the same instruction, and that is the whole answer.

Where you live matters here. Sydney's tap water is soft (Sydney Water measures about 57 mg/L as calcium carbonate, under the 60 mg/L line they use for soft), so a mark here is usually just drying, not mineral film. Water Corporation in WA describes the harder case: spots on drinking glasses are minerals left behind once the water has gone, and groundwater supplies are the hard ones. On hard water, a rinse in filtered water and a wipe sorts it.

My own habit, not a rule: I keep one thin cotton cloth in the drawer that only ever touches glasses. Tea towels that have dried pans leave lint in the cuts.

How should you store it?

Stand each piece upright with air around it. Don't stack cut glass.

Satsuma Kiriko's line is that glass should never rest against glass, and that paper or cloth goes between pieces that must sit together. Tajima Glass adds the practical reason: stacked glasses jam, then break when you pull them apart.

Two more from the makers. Don't leave a decanter stopper in for months; it seizes. And don't store a drink in crystal: lead crystal gives up lead into anything acidic left standing in it, and port kept in a crystal decanter for four months has been measured at 2,000 to 5,000 µg per litre. Use it and wash it soon after. Don't leave a drink standing in crystal.

What do you do about a chip or cloudiness?

Two of the three problems below cannot be fixed at all, but the third one often can.

A chipped rim or a snapped stem is finished. Kagami states plainly that neither can be repaired, and I would stop drinking from a chipped rim straight away. Haze from a dishwasher is permanent too, which is why that rule is a rule.

Mineral film from standing water is the one you can sometimes get back. Kagami says scale in a vase cannot be removed once set, so change the water often instead. For marks that have not hardened, Satsuma Kiriko suggests a few hours soaking in diluted bleach, and Kagami suggests rubbing with lemon and salt. Keep any acid to a few minutes of cleaning, not sitting in the glass.

The never-do list

• Never a dishwasher and never a drying machine.
• Never a microwave, an oven, or a direct flame.
• Never hot water. A swing of much more than 30°C can crack the piece.
• Never an abrasive sponge, a metal scourer, or cleanser powder.
• Never stack cut glass, and never let two pieces touch on a shelf.
• Never leave wine, spirits or vinegar standing in crystal for weeks.

Looked after this way, a cut glass should outlast you. If you want to see the pieces, browse the collection.