Cutting Edge Technology ?

[snohare]

Not sure if this is the right place to post this, but here goes....
Clever b****r that I am, I came home from a Thrift shop with a demijohn.
"Oh ho", says I to myself," cut the bottom off this and it will make a wonderful cloche ! "
And so it would.
But I only know how to cut panes of glass.
Anyone know what I do next ? (Refunds not given.)

[lottie dolly]

I saw this done a tv programe,you do have to be very carefull,score around where you want to severe it,then apparently,the clever bit is,tap it very gently,but they did it from the inside,mmm,have an experiment and see if it will grind of a bit higher up,enought to get your hand in,plus a thick glove,the worst that can happen is it shatters.

[Eyren]

Like lottie dolly, I saw it done on TV ("The Allotment" - I have it on DVD). The presenter had a very simple wooden cradle* that allowed him to lay the jar on its side and rotate it with one hand whilst he held a glasscutter against the side with the other. That gave him a nice even score. Then he tapped it gently all the way round the inside with a little brass hammer, and eventually it just broke free. Good luck!

* Something like a draining board rack might be a good substitute - one of those folding ones, for preference - you need something that will hold your jar steady as you turn it

[Snadger]

Is there not something about standing jar in a bowl of cold water up to the height you want, then pouring boiling water into the jar to the same height? Please don't try this unless its verified by someone else though!

I have about a dozen demijohns in the garage.........so let me know what works and I'll give it a try!

[rana]

With bottles you can soak a length of string in paraffin, tie it tightly around the bottle where you want the glass to break. You then set fire to the string. Once the string has burned plunge the bottle into cold water and the glass should break where the string was. Not sure if this will also work with a demijohn because they are made of fairly thick glass....

[Snadger]

With bottles you can soak a length of string in paraffin, tie it tightly around the bottle where you want the glass to break. You then set fire to the string. Once the string has burned plunge the bottle into cold water and the glass should break where the string was. Not sure if this will also work with a demijohn because they are made of fairly thick glass....

Yep, I've seen that one as well! I'll wait untill everyone else experiments before trying my own!!

[janeyo]

I'd forget about the cloche and make wine in it instead.....

[Nicos]

I'd forget about the cloche and make wine in it instead.....

....me too!
although it's going to be interesting to see the results!

[greendean]

do you mean like this

How to turn a demijohn into a cloche - MoneySavingExpert.com Forums

[HayleyB]

Thick gloves???????

[snohare]

Wow, thanks guys ! I knew we had expertise here but I didn't realise you were all broken-bottled pyromaniacs as well ! I'm never going to annoy you lot in the pub...
The top of my demijohn is about a centimetre across, so I think it would take gey wee hands to tap that one...even if I could do a ship-in-a-bottle thing with a toffee hammer I think I'll go with the scoring then hot/cold water idea. I know somewhere that the water butt has been sitting out at -15 for the last few nights...that ought to give me a plentiful supply of chilly liquid !
I'll let you know how I get on. I was using the plastic bottles, but they are more inclined to blow away, don't hold the heat the same when it cools, and just don't look as good.