Customer Reviews

Armour Products Bottle and Jar Cutter

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(21)

 

 

My husband and I purchased this item because we wanted to make cool looking bottles into gifts for our friends and family, but were worried after reading negative reviews.

After trying the bottle cutter ourselves we found that, while glass cutting in general is a little frustrating, if you read the instructions fully and practice a few times, cutting glass is easy!

The blade doesn't cut the glass, but rather scores it so that when you hit it with the tapping hammer it breaks cleanly (I was not awesome at scoring, so my glass was a bit jagged - needed to sand it more, but that was ok!) The moral of this review: Easy, but takes practice! Kit works just fine :o)

After reading all the reviews on this product I realized that the problem wasn't the product, but the people not knowing what they are getting into. This tool does NOT cut a glass bottle. Rather, it make a even score to work with. There are NO products out there that will cut through glass. You have to WORK to cut it.
I found a great video that helped me to make some perfect glasses:
[...]
That being said, this product isn't the best. Cheaply made with a confusing setup. But it does work with practice.

Tips: Don't score the bottle more then once. Don't use the hammer. Don't worry bout the lube. Watch the video.

Good Luck!

I saw commercials for a bottle cutter when I was a kid in the 1970's ,long before the internet existed. I always wanted one. I envisioned recycling old bottles for glassware and for other decorative and functional items. Then the product disappeared from tv commercials. I was so happy to find that bottle and glass cutters were still around so I purchased what i thought was a good one from amazon. FIRST, the product is difficult to position, the arm with the cutter is hard to get in exactly the right place and if it is not tight enough it slips when one goes to use it. The product is made of BRITTLE plastic that would in all probability crack if the wing is turned too tightly in an attempt to secure the cutter blade into position. SECOND, it is hard to hold the bottle in place because it slips and slides on the smooth plastic base. THIRD, it does NOT cut as easily or as cleanly as one would expect. FOURTH, it is extremely time consuming to tap, tap, tap on the inside of the bottle. FIFTH, if there is the SLIGHTEST flaw in the jar or bottle to be cut then there will be an uneven chunk to fall out of the side far below the taped line.
SORRY to be the author of such a negative review but this item is a complete waste of money.

I have no trouble with this, although it's true that it's cheaply made, and there are many parts that are confusing to assemble and use. Maybe my success with it has a lot to do w/ my previous experience with another bottle cutting kit, called the Ephroms bottle cutting kit. THis one is much smaller, more simple to use, particularly for a beginner, and is metal and well-constructed. I spent many hours of trial and error and practicing with this one before I purchased the Armour Bottle & Jar cutter. THe ephroms version isn't good for large bottles, like jugs with big diameters, and I wanted to make not only tumblers, but also glass bowls from discarded wine jugs, and this plastic cutter works well for this purpose. I discarded half the add-ons and weird attachments and just use the basic mechanism. I had no problem getting a good score, either. And yeah, the tapping device fits into the mouths of some bottles, but not others, which is strange because it has nothing to do w/ the size of the bottle. WHen it didn't fit into the top of a champagne bottle, I assumed it also wouldn't work w/ other bottles that size and shape, but it just depends on the bottle. There are many other ways besides tapping, though, to separate a bottle such as the heating/cooling technique, using a candle and ice cubes or ice water. (This is the ephroms way) It is not true that this Armour is the only one on the market--there are others besides these two, and it is also not true that there are no devices or tools out there that will actually CUT the glass bottles. Dremel has several, for those who have advanced beyond beginner or occasional hobbyist. (I'm not quite there yet).

This item is made of very cheap plastic. There were no written instructions for assembly, only a picture of the parts and of the completed item. I generally don't have difficulty assembling things, but this was just... weird. When I finally got it figured out, I ended up having to wait to use it until I could locate some "household oil". Apparently it's poor form not to lube the cutter each and every time one uses it. I finally get some 3-In-1 oil, lubricate the cutting wheel, and prepare to cut a thin bottle. The cutting wheel doesn't even scratch the glass. I tried over and over but it didn't even leave a mark, much less score the glass. Further investigation showed the cutting wheel is not even sharp enough to nick skin. The enclosed booklet shows some ideas for projects that are so hideous I have not the words to describe them. Just absolutely tacky, terrible "crafts" that may drive sensitive people mad, and all others merely blind. Run. Save yourself. It's too late for me...

I was excited to find this item and depressed once i pulled it from the box to assemble it. It's still not put together right. The pieces did not fit together properly and I have put it in a corner until i feel better and want to try again. It may well be returned.

this is a plastic piece of crap. you'd be better off using the $[...] glass cutting blade from a hardware store. this is like buying an easy bake oven. it's made for children. i really, really do not recommend this.

An absolute piece of junk. The cutting wheel barely makes a scratch on the bottles.

The manual was vague and non-descriptive. There are 5 pieces sitting here which I have no idea what to do with as the manual does not even give an assembly diagram. The cutting wheel is worthless and barely makes a score. What a piece of garbage. I have been cutting glass and doing stained glass for years and thought I'd try my hand at recycling my bottles this way. This isn't worth 10 cents let alone $[...].

I was really worried after reading the other reviews out there but there is not any other bottle cutters on the market right now. There ARE assembly instructions on the side of the box to start with, and it was really simple to put together. While this cutter does not come with the oil all class cutters require it, so that was really not a surprise. I scored the bottle after reading the directions and had no problem with it sliding. The directions tell you to put the front legs over the edge of the table to keep it from moving and it worked just fine. My wine bottle split right on the score line after tapping it. You have to have patience when working with glass, it is not a quick process. My tapper also fit inside my wine bottle with no problem....If you are willing to take the time to do the process correctly then this is a great product, if you are looking for something to cut glass instantly then keep looking.