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I am trying to break wine bottles to get large chunks of glass to do some fusing. I have recently tried to wrap the bottle in a plastic bag, and strike it with a hammer. The result more shattering, with a lot of small pieces, and very few large pieces.

Any ideas of how I can break these bottles and get larger pieces of glass?

Looking at your website, it appears you must be using a tile saw to cut bottles. Can't you just chop them up in bigger sizes with your saw?

Valerie Adams wrote:Looking at your website, it appears you must be using a tile saw to cut bottles. Can't you just chop them up in bigger sizes with your saw?

I could, but that is a bit time consuming, plus I am looking for more of a "broken" look.

Score. Tap. Break . . .

Would it work tomheat it in the kiln then dunk into a bucket of cold water?? Never tried it but might be interesting.........

As Brock said. Make a few random scores on the clean bottle, then stick it in your plastic bag and whack it with the hammer. It'll still break, but the scores will relieve some of the shattering.

You could also try dropping it on a corner of a concrete stair from about 3 feet up. When I do that the bottle always breaks, and there goes the wine...

also try scoring and then put in a box and hit it with a sharp flame from a torch. It should give you nice larger pieces.

Tom Fuhrman wrote:also try scoring and then put in a box and hit it with a sharp flame from a torch. It should give you nice larger pieces.

That' how I do it.
Bob

Hitting it with a hammer is applying too much force.

Try putting it in a plastic bag, tying a knot in the plastic bag, and dropping it from a moderate height onto a hard surface eg stand on a chair and drop it on it's side onto concrete.

Torch

"Hitting it with a hammer is applying too much force."

That might just depend how hard you hit it, doncha think?

Isn't doncha think the sound of a correctly scored and struck bottle breaking?

Kevin Midgley wrote:Isn't doncha think the sound of a correctly scored and struck bottle breaking?

I'd guess the correct spelling would be -- doncha TINK

For fun & in the name of science, you could also try lighting up your propane torch and hit the bottle with the flame...
Maybe fry it in a pan like we used to do with marbles?