Glass Cutters for Crafting Dummies

Glass cutter detail

If you have a kid in the house, or, for that matter, an inquisitive adult; one of the best educational investments you can make is a copy of David Macaulay's The Way Things Work Now (the updated version, of course). If you have one of those, or even the 1988 version, you'll rarely find yourself asking Google the question, "How does a ..... work?" that's a good thing, because then you'll avoid rubbish like the Hunker.com post "How Glass Cutters Work"; an answer as envisioned by eHowian Alex Burke (back when she called herself Melissa LaRose).

Like so many of eHow.com's stable of freelancers, Burke found herself trapped by the site's demanding standards. Oh, no one there concerned themselves with accuracy; instead the focus was on format. Alex had to pump out 300 words or so to meet the desired minimum word count. To that end, she started with an introductory statement:

"Cutting glass is actually the act of scoring glass or making a mark or groove across the glass. This weakens the glass along the score..."

After that, Alex explained the parts of a glass cutter:

"The glass cutter is made of two main pieces—the stem or handle and the roller or wheel. The wheel is not sharp, like a blade, but does have an angled or pointed edge. The wheel or disc moves freely so that when it is pressed to a surface it will roll when pushed with the handle. Handles are a length that allows the hand to grip them in a full and steady manner. There are different styled handles—pencil grip, pistol grip, Thomas grip, and a number of custom-styled grips. A third part of some glass cutters is an oil chamber that allows an oiled score line. "

Yes, that's overkill, but... here is where Burke's assignment went awry: she was supposed to explain how a glass cutter works, but instead she wandered off (to the tune of 213 words) to recapitulate how to use a glass cutter. We won't argue whether or her copy-reword-paste job was correct (it mostly is). What we will argue is that after reading Alex's post, people still don't know how a glass cutter works. The answer to that question is pretty simple: the cutting wheel Burke mentioned in passing is either made from hardened steel with a tungsten carbide edge or steel with a diamond coating. Those are both harder than glass, which is why you can score a line with a glass cutter. That, Alex, is how a glass cutter works. What you told us is how to use a glass cutter, which was not your assignment. You (and the content editor who let this pass) are thus deserving of your reward, the Dumbass of the Day.

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