I thought it worth mentioning that whilst buying a good professional glass cutter is a good investment – if you are starting out you don’t necessarily have to buy one….
The key point to mention is lubrication and one of the ordinary glass cutters (£5-£6) will actually do quite well for basic requirements provided the cutting wheel is kept oiled at all times. The simplest way to to do this is :
- put a piece of kitchen roll into the bottom of a small container and add some light oil (3-in one or similar is fine)
- firstly put your cutter into the oil, to oil the wheel, wiping the excess on the kitchen roll as you take it out the container
- after every cut simply repeat the wheel oiling
So why buy a professional cutter ?
convenient – a professional cutter has lubrication built in, by having an oil reservoir in its handle, and which is very convenient – but it also has a much smaller cutting wheel and I would say of much higher quality and therefore more durable.
more intricate cuts – the smaller wheel does mean that more intricate cuts can be made, e.g. wiggly tighter curves.
If you are planning on taking things further – a good investment. I use Toyo cutters almost exclusively. I have found them to be very high quality and they last a very long time. (I have seen claims of umpteen miles worth of cuts etc.!).
All I can say is that I have not had to replace one yet after many years of studio and class use.
I have however tried cheaper versions of this cutter over the years, as an experiment. I think I only have 2 left (of 6 trialled).
A pistol grip version of the cutter is also available. Not much use for cutting curves – but marvellous for my wrists when doing lots of long straight cuts.