A method for etching (200) photolithographically produced quartz crystal blanks for singulation. First, a quartz wafer is plated on both sides with metal and subsequently coated on both sides with photoresist (202). Second, the photoresist is patterned and developed and the metal layers etched to define the periphery of a quartz blank with a narrow quartz channel exposed between the blank to be singulated and the parent quartz wafer (204). Third, the quartz channel is preferentially etched partially into the wafer along parallel atomic planes to provide a mechanically weak junction between the quartz wafer and the blank to be singulated, while the periphery around the remainder of the quartz blank is etched completely through the parent quartz wafer (206). Fourth, the photoresist layers are stripped from the quartz wafer (208). Finally, the quartz blank is cleaved substantially along the bottom of the quartz channel to singulate the crystal blank from the wafer (210).