[schnewj]

Harold that is a good question. I always thought that glass etching was with Flouric acid. But I know very little about that.

Herb

Hydroflouric acid is nasty stuff that it is best to stay away from COMPLETELY!. If you get it on your skin, any skin, it will eat right through to the bone marrow.

With that, said, there are many ways to etch glass; acids, blasting, and mechanical etching. Most hobby type shops sell kits to acid etch, I have used templates or even simple taped up areas and a hand held spot blaster. Texture will depend on the medium used; fineness of sand, Black Beauty, etc.

I can't speak for the mechanical means. However, bits are obviously available and capable of performing this operation, as linked by UglySign. The only thing is, that, this is a "drag bit". it might be good for line etching but not for etching a field. I'm sure that there is a learning curve and I'm not quite sure how well tempered glass would take to a mechanical means without fracturing.