I made a few Christmas gifts that required me to cut glass. I couldn't resist. I've seen those cut wine bottle drinking glasses, and the idea of putting a candle in a container I made myself that was the pretty green of a wine bottle was just too perfect! Mike and I selected beer bottle glasses to make for his family, and I planned to make candles and put them in those wine bottle candle containers I dreamed up.
Of course, this may have been a foolish decision. I have tried to cut one glass before with a bottle cutting kit, and it did not go well. I don't know if the glass wasn't prepared well enough, or wasn't etched properly, or wasn't heated evenly. Regardless, the bottle I had didn't crack correctly, and I hadn't tried to cut another bottle since.
We decided to give bottle cutting another go, though, and this time I planned to be better prepared. Rather than following the bottle cutting kit directions, I turned to the Internet and researched other methods. I ended up deciding to merge the directions found in my kit with the glass bottle cutting directions found on the Art of Manliness (who ever said it was just for men? There's all sorts of useful information on that website).
I also recruited Mike to help this time, partially because I thought he would like doing something from the Art of Manliness, and partially because this project involved glass and fire. Mike would be sad if I didn't invite him to join a project involving glass and fire.
I also recruited Mike to help this time, partially because I thought he would like doing something from the Art of Manliness, and partially because this project involved glass and fire. Mike would be sad if I didn't invite him to join a project involving glass and fire.
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| Mike, my assistant for this project. |
My combined directions meant that we would be etching the glass with my bottle etcher, heating it with a flame from a candle, and then submerging the etched and heated bottle in ice water in the sink. (Lighting twine on fire as the tutorial suggests just didn't seem safe in our situation. We can't work outside. If we could have worked outdoors, we probably would have chosen the twine method. Why? Who doesn't want to light twine on fire to break a bottle in half? I'm still not convinced that we didn't miss out).
Materials:
Here's what you need to do this project as I did it:
- bottle cutter tool, available for about $20 (I already had one, but if you make enough containers, this will pay for itself very quickly)
- a glass wine bottle or beer bottle (have extras)
- candle
- lighter or match (we almost missed this part, so I'm including it on the list!)
- ice and water
- sandpaper
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| This is the bottle cutting tool, available for about $20 |
For the twine version, substitute twine and lighter fluid for the candle and bottle cutter tool. Read about that on other sites though. As I said, I've never tried it.
Steps One: Gather and clean bottles
First you need empty bottles, so stash those away for a while. You will want more than one bottle, because chances are that not all of the bottles you use will crack perfectly. Some brands' bottles cut better than others, so you may also want to have a variety of brands' bottles- not difficult if you have a husband who likes to try new beers and wines, like I do. If you don't have variety in your house, you can always call on some friends.A word of advice. If you do happen to find a bottle with a design made on the bottle rather than just the label, get it. A label will have to come off, but a design in the glass itself will not.
Now you have to take the labels off of the bottles. We soaked the bottles in a solution of water and baking soda for about 30 minutes. I confess I did not measure how much I put in- I just dumped some in. A quick search tells me 5-10 tablespoons of baking soda in room temperature water for 30 minutes will do it. I filled a mixing bowl with water if I was only working on a few at a time, and the sink with water if I was working on a lot of bottles at a time.
You will want to fill the bottles with water. Why? Because then the bottle will not float, and the label will actually soak in the baking soda water.
After you let the bottle soak for half an hour or more, peel off the label. Well...in theory. Some brands are better than others! We peeled the label off of a few bottles, and intensely scrubbed the rest off with a sponge or steel wool because the labels were so stubborn. So stubborn. So very stubborn that removing the labels quickly became the most time consuming part of this project by far (which may be why I handed that task off to Mike after doing one round of label removal while he was at work...which shall be our secret).
Step Two: Etch bottles
If you are using my method, you'll want to use a screwdriver and set your glass cutter to the height you want your cut glass to be (it really etches, it doesn't cut, but "glass etching" will turn up a lot of ornamental finished on vases and things...you have to search for "bottle cutter" to find this tool).
Now, safety glasses on! Do it now before you forget. I'm not certain that it's necessary, but Mike says we must and I think it's better safe than sorry. Now lay the bottle on the bottle cutter. Turn the bottle, applying even pressure as you spin the bottle in a circle. Keep spinning until you hear crunching (that means you've hit the point on which you started). Stop when you hear crunching.
Now, safety glasses on! Do it now before you forget. I'm not certain that it's necessary, but Mike says we must and I think it's better safe than sorry. Now lay the bottle on the bottle cutter. Turn the bottle, applying even pressure as you spin the bottle in a circle. Keep spinning until you hear crunching (that means you've hit the point on which you started). Stop when you hear crunching.
Be careful to keep the bottle even and steady. You want the line you etch to be even, or your bottle won't cut evenly. I push the bottle lightly back towards the back of the etcher even as I spin it, which has helped me keep the line even.
Step Three: Fill sink with ice water and heat etched line
If you haven't already, fill the sink with water and ice. Then light your candle. I placed mine next to the sink so that water was nearby. Now's the time to put on those safety glasses as well (just in case- Mike was particularly determined that we should do this, although I had already bought them myself).
Heat the bottle along the etched line by holding the etched line near the flame and rotating. My directions said 2-3 times slowly and 3-4 times quickly. Because of the failure the first time around, I ended up rotating the bottle 3-4 times slowly and 5-6 times quickly. The goal is to heat the glass at the etched line, and heat that glass evenly.
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| You should hold the etched line directly over the flame. |
Immediately immerse the bottle in the ice water upon completing the rotations. Let it sit for a few seconds, then put the two halves apart gently.
You should now have an evenly cut bottle if all went as it should. As I said, though, this is a tricky process. It may take a few tries to get the bottle to cut evenly, and even after I had done a few it still seemed to come down to the type of bottle and a bit of luck.
Step 4: Sand the bottle
You'll have to sand the bottle to get rid of the sharp edge- especially if it's a drinking glass. Either do this outside, or wet the bottle before you do it, or both. Keeping the bottle wet where you sand tears through the sand paper more quickly, but keeps the dust from the glass from flying into the air. You could possibly wrap the paper around something more durable, like a piece of wood. You may want to wear gloves, especially if your hand is going to be in direct contact with the sandpaper, and be careful with the glass.
After you sand the bottle, wash it. We weren't able to get our edges looking perfectly neat, but they were safe to use. With some practice, we may be able to get the beautiful edge like you see at a restaurant than uses cut wine bottles as glasses.
After you sand the bottle, wash it. We weren't able to get our edges looking perfectly neat, but they were safe to use. With some practice, we may be able to get the beautiful edge like you see at a restaurant than uses cut wine bottles as glasses.
Final Verdict
Cost: $0
Note on cost: I owned the bottle cutter already (about $20.00). You can buy a set of four of these glasses for about that price on Etsy. If you only plan to make four beer bottle drinking glasses and then never cut another glass bottle again, you should consider just buying the glasses on Etsy. However, if you plan to recycle all sorts of bottles, the bottle cutter will quickly pay for itself. Mike and I have made two sets of four glasses, and six candle containers so far. I plan to make more.
Effort: This was a difficult project. First, some labels did NOT want to come off. The most time consuming part of cutting bottles is most definitely removing the labels. When cutting the bottles, some beer bottles just didn't want to be cut evenly. Maybe if we tried the method with twine and more fire, we would have been able to pull off the cuts more cleanly. With the bottle cutter method, though, it took a lot of bottles to get just a few good ones. I think we cut well over twenty bottles to get eight drinking glasses.
Mike wanted to weigh in, so here goes. Of cutting beer bottle drinking glasses, Mike says "I don't think any of the steps were technically difficult, however, getting the bottles to break with an even rim was challenging because I couldn't figure out to what extent it [the uneven or even bottle breaking] was due to chance or skill." In other words, we aren't sure if our struggles were because we didn't know what we were doing, or if our struggles or success were simply luck of the bottle cutting draw.
Mike wanted to weigh in, so here goes. Of cutting beer bottle drinking glasses, Mike says "I don't think any of the steps were technically difficult, however, getting the bottles to break with an even rim was challenging because I couldn't figure out to what extent it [the uneven or even bottle breaking] was due to chance or skill." In other words, we aren't sure if our struggles were because we didn't know what we were doing, or if our struggles or success were simply luck of the bottle cutting draw.
The candle containers made from wine glasses were easier than drinking glasses. The bottles for drinking glasses had to be cut more precisely than the wine bottles destined to be candle holders (no one is going to be drinking out of a candle container), and we had much greater success with the wine bottles cutting evenly anyway.
Overall Value: Whatever the struggle, these containers did make for fun gifts, and they were fun to make after the labels were pulled off. We now have a list going, though, of what bottles are best and what brands don't work at all for bottle cutting. I also think I will consider, in the future, trying to find ways to recycle the bottles that allow me to leave the label on.
I do think that the candles particularly looked quite lovely when they were finished. Here are photographs provided by my sister (I forgot to take any).
I do love the color of the wine bottle for a candle container.
I will be doing this again. If anyone decides to try out the twine method, or masters the bottle cutter method in a way I have yet to, let me know!
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