For solid china - is it easier to cut or smash?

10 years ago

Hi all

I bought some solid china recently that I want to break up for mosaics. But I've never been good at this. I usually smash them up (since they are solid, I have no particular pattern I'm trying to preserve). This is surprisingly harder and noiser than I would have expected, and of course I have no control over the size or shape of the pieces.

It seems the other option is to cut. But my cutter is hard to use and kindof hurts my hand. I thought maybe I had a loser cutter but from what I've seen here, it's the same that others use.

Of course the other issue is how to avoid the obnoxious rim on plates. I'm assuming I'd have better luck if I cut (theoretically I could cut around them) instead of smashed.

What do you recommend? It seems the obvious answer is to cut but as I mentioned, I find that hard to do.

Thanks in advance for your advice!

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Comments (2)

texaswild
10 years ago
Let me guess - you bought those dishes from Walmart - or some other place that sells stoneware. Believe me - I know how tough that stuff can be. No possible way I could cut it w/my nippers, so was forced to put it on the tile saw. It even taxes the saw. I don't use my Ring Saw for it - I use the regular tile saw I bought from Harbor Freight. I was forced to buy this kind of tess cuz beautiful china plates don't show up here in thrift stores. Buy yourself some ear muffs and get out the saw. I cut through the rim all around in small increments, then you CAN use the nippers to snip off the rims, and to cut the pieces you've cut. The pieces just pop of w/a gentle tap. Then use the saw or hammer on the inside of the plate - depending on the shapes you want.
phish_gw
Original Author
10 years ago
Thanks slowmedown. So you recommended door number 3 - a tile saw! I don't have one :(. Maybe I should look into that. And no, these plates are actually not from Walmart, we do have decent thrift stores around here, but that doesn't make cutting any easier!
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