Against the background of the increasing cost and scarcity of raw materials that are required for the manufacture of cutting tools, the question of alternative cutting materials arises. Glasses and glass ceramics represent a possibility for this, the use of which has hardly been considered so far. This thesis is devoted to the question of whether cutting tools can be made from glass and glass ceramic materials at all. In addition, the question of how such tools can be used for which purposes is dealt with. First results on both questions are presented. The grinding of indexable inserts from the materials examined was possible without breaking corners and edges. Plastics can be easily machined with the tools produced. When machining aluminum, however, the tools made of glass fail completely, while those made of glass–ceramic show good results here too. These first results are intended to pave the way for further research in this area.