They look like evidence at some ghastly torture trial but actually these are tools my father used to make his glass buttons. The ends are wrapped to make them easier to hold and to protect his hand from the heat of the furnace and hot glass.
This is his glass cutter set with an industrial diamond which he would use to score the glass which was then cracked over a steel rule or the smaller pieces scored like butterscotch held in his loosely cupped hand and broken by bashing with pliers. See Raw glass to button post
Here is a file used to imprint a texture onto the button.
These are other metal pieces he collected and would use to imprint designs or texture into the buttons. Belt buckles worked well as they have a bar across the back which he could hold with his tongs to press the decorated part into the molten glass.
Where he impressed the metal buckle and how hard it was pressed into the glass produced different effects.
Such a simple technique could produce such differing results from the masculine to the delicate.
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