So I guess you can cut tempered glass.
Semantics? Tempered, to me, is when glass would shatter into hundreds of pieces when fractured. I think it is when glass is heated then rapidly cooled. How rapidly, idk. What I do know is that a bake around tube can be cut without it shattering.
Glass exploding from heat? I'm still thinking about that.
I have no experience with hurricane lamp shades, but I believe those to be "ordinary" glass. I also read people having success with those, but I don't know what watt light is being used.
Not enough info in the original post to say that tempered is needed. Silly to put tempered glass in a small cabinet with cfls unless you think you are going to put your hand through it changing bulbs. While I have never tried this, I am confident that ordinary glass would work with a 70w mh in my cabinet with no fear of it exploding.
4u2smoke, 3/8 tempered is what you are using? Why so thick? Are you spanning a distance in feet? Alot of energy being absorbed there for sure.