How to Cut Glass Bottles

Learn how to cut glass bottles easily and quickly with this step by step tutorial that’ll have you exploring new ways to craft!

I have a really fun post today. But you will have to be really careful with this DIY because it involves glass.  Today I’m sharing how to safely cut glass bottles. 

This has been something I’ve been wanting to do for quite some time. However, I was too scared of the glass shattering or cracking. I am here to report that cutting glass bottles is not as hard as it might seem. I was actually able to cut over 60 bottles in a period of one week and only a handful were casualties.

Why would you cut glass bottles?

Before we get into this DIY, you might be wondering – why would anyone cut glass bottles? Glass bottles make excellent wind chimes. Not only that, you can use them to make your own drinking glasses, or even candles. 

For me, it was a DIY I wanted to master with the intent of using the cut bottles (beer or liquor) to sell as candles from my soap store this holiday season. While I can’t mail candles in this Arizona heat (without taking proper precautions..), sending them in the fall/winter is definitely something I wanted to do.

Do take care when working with glass and make sure you use gloves and safety goggles. I’ve provided many pictures below and linked to the soap cutter I purchased on Amazon. While a soap cutter is not required to cut glass bottles, it definitely makes it so much easier.

Using a Bottle Cutter

There are many ways to cut glass bottles. Some people will use a string, soaked in alcohol, around the bottle neck and lit on fire. Others will use nail polish remover with the same effect. Or, you can pick up a bottle cutter on Amazon. While it might seem complicated, a bottle cutter is actually very easy and very reliable – especially if you plan on cutting a large amount of bottles.

The bottle cutter is easy to adjust. Once you adjust it to fit your bottle, you’ll lay your (round) liquor/beer bottle on top of the rollers. Then, firmly push down as you roll the bottle over the rollers to create a score line.

You’ll want to heat up a pot of water on the stove to boiling (this is important) and have a separate (large) bowl on the side of the sink with cold ice water. Once you roll the bottle to create the score line, flip it with the liquor opening down and submerge it just over the top of the scoreline for 15-20 seconds.

Then, pull it out and submerge in your ice water. The hot/cold on the score line should break the bottle in just the right place to make an even cut.

Things to remember:

• If you have a fancy liquor bottle, you’ll want to practice before cutting it to ensure greater success.
• A single scoreline is sufficient to allow the bottle to cut evenly. If you repeat the scoreline a second time, the bottle may crack in places you didn’t expect and create an uneven cut.
• Make sure your pot of water on the stove is boiling before you submerge your bottles. I like to cut all of my bottles in one mass. Then once the water is boiling, I submerge them one by one.

I find that liquor bottles tend to cut easier than beer bottles. And some brand of beers will cut much easier than others. For example, Budweiser bottles tend to cut VERY easily and evenly ever time. But Moosehead Lager is much more difficult to cut evenly.

Obviously, the bottle cutter will cut round bottles easily but square bottles aren’t quite so easy. For those bottles, you’re best using an alternative method (perhaps soaking a string in alcohol)

After you cut

After you cut your bottles, you’ll want to use a fine grit sandpaper to sand down the bottle. If you pick up a bottle cutter on Amazon, your bottle cutter will likely come with sandpaper.

If your bottle cutter does not come with sandpaper, don’t worry. You’ll want to look for silicon carbide wet/dry sandpaper (often sold at hardware stores or auto supply stores).

Have you ever wanted to learn how to cut glass bottles?