GGR Glass now stocks a wider range of the bestselling Toyo glass cutters available to buy online, including oil cutters, dry cutters, pencil style and pistol grip cutters and replacement straight and patterned heads.

The Japanese manufactured Toyo glass cutters are glass studio essentials and are the preferred choice of many professional and amateur glass cutters. They are ergonomically designed to reduce hand fatigue and are extremely long lasting. The Toyo patented tap wheel technology helps create a precise score for stained glass work, glass fusing and copper foiling glass work.

 

Toyo pistol grip glass cutter

Here’s our top ten tips for mastering the art of glass cutting…

1.  A relaxed posture is everything. Stand up to cut if you can with the glass on a hip/waist height table. This way you will have better control over cutter with the full movement of your body and shoulder.

2.  Make sure the glass is clean as dirty glass will dull your cutting wheel. Also remember to cut the glass on its smoothest side.

3.  Hold the glass cutter in whichever way is easiest and most comfortable for you.  You can push or pull the cutter to score the surface, but always keep the cutter wheel perpendicular to the glass without leaning to either side.  Make sure you can always see the cutting wheel and the line you are cutting along.

4.  Maintain the same pressure throughout your scoring, if you ease the pressure at any point this will make the glass harder to break in places. Pressing too hard can also cause difficulties when trying to break the glass along the score line as well as damaging the cutter wheel and giving you a sore hand.

 

5. When cutting an irregular shape always cut from the narrowest end to the widest end.

6. Always do the most difficult cut first, like a sharp curve, as the more glass there is surrounding it the less chance there is of the glass fracturing.

7. Slow and steady wins the race in this case, speed isn’t important but maintaining the same pressure throughout the cut definitely is.

8. If you need to stop cutting the glass mid-way through a score remember to maintain the pressure and don’t lift the cutter from the surface of the glass. You can then continue the score from one edge to the other. Never go over the same score twice as this can damage your cutter.

9. Use a small brush to move any glass chips away from your working area so you don’t scratch the glass or yourself.

10. Wear eye protection to avoid getting small sharp splinters of glass in your eyes!  You will need goggles that fit close to your face. Take a look at our range of goggles here.

Once you've managed to cut the glass using these steps, no matter what job you're doing, glass transport using our suction cups or hand cups is vital to completing an adequate job. Take a look at our website today to view our models!