>> >shockwaves going up the lead
>
>A snip that makes a cut-off fly across the room will cause
>the equivalent force to go into the part that didn't. Maybe
>you weakened the crystal and made it susceptible to
>over-driving failure. As noted in threads about using crystals
>in rocketry and projectile applications, crystals will tolerate
>mechanical stresses in some directions but not others

Not when you use shockless cutters (see my previous post on this thread) The
cutters produce a flat cut on one side and that means there is no wedge
formed to push the lead back in that direction. All the energy goes into
pushing the portion of the lead with the wedge on it. I will try some ASCII
art.


                | /
--------------| |/  /--------
  component   |    /  excess
    lead      |    \  lead
--------------| |\  \--------
                | \
 <- no force   cutter  force applied ->
               blades

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