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Hand held glass cutters are an excellent entry level way of cutting glass. Indeed if you become adept at using one, they can be used exclusively instead of much bulkier wall mounted models.
The basic premise behind them, is to etch a line of weakness into a sheet of glass. This line of weakness is then exploited to crack or cleave the glass in two.
The way to exploit this weakness is to stress the glass by bending it with the etched surface to the outside, until it snaps. It can be useful when using large sheets of glass to place something along the area of weakness to help with the successful separation.
When cutting the glass it is important that you place considerable pressure to ensure a good contact & etching the first time every time. Because of this it is a good idea to place something like foam rubber or carpet under the glass as you cut, to ensure good points of contact all over the glazed sheet. It is also a good idea to cut onto a strong unyielding surface like a strong dinner table or large work bench.
Most hand held glass cutters have a ball of metal on the end. This is used to lead the crack through the etched line, by way of lightly tapping the glass along the back side of the glass, just where the weakness has been created. When doing this it is important to have the glass supported so that the waste piece, or indeed the used sheet does not fall or become stressed leading to it breaking un-necessarily. It is also useful to note that the glass should not be tapped too vigorously, otherwise the glass can shatter.
Most glass cutters have small square notches cut out of the cutting head. These apparently support 2 functions.
The first is to provide a gripping device to help cut off small amounts of glass when a sheet has to trimmed by a small amount.
The second is that they merely are a way of measuring the thickness of glass. Many people believe in either or both ideas. Personally I have never used them for anything.
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