1) One early meaning of the verb was to make something shine like glass, by rubbing and polishing: it was used of swords and other weapons in 1515 and 1648 (OED).
In the cutlery trade it formerly referred to the stage between grinding and polishing, and a glazing wheel or glazer is said to have rotated at a slower speed than a grindstone. It was described more recently as a complex process which involved the use of many varied wheels: the marks left on a blade after grinding were first removed by a small wooden wheel covered with an emery compound, after which a leather-covered wheel dressed with suet and beeswax was used for polishing: the final lustre was applied by a rag mop wheel. Examples of the word in Sheffield include: 1590 to grynde or glace anye knyffe or knyf blayds at the said whele
1625 making blades, or grinding or glazing knives or blades. Later inventories suggest that ‘glazer’ was used of a glazing wheel: in 1689, Francis Brownell had 4 hammers 2 glassiers 1 Wheele Chimney and in 1739, George Greaves, a scissorsmith, had 4 grinding stones, 4 caulks … 4 glazers, 9 pulleys, 2 horsings, 4 axle trees, a wheel band. Reference to a foot glazer in John Shirtcliffe’s inventory in 1713 implies that it could be operated by a treadle.