Best Tile Cutters for 2024 | Australian Buyers’ Guide

What are Tile Cutters?

Tile cutters are designed to speed up tile fitting, enabling you to measure and cut accurate splits through tiles. Because tiles come in different materials, you’ll not be surprised to hear that you’ll probably need a different cutter for each job.

I prefer the look of porcelain tiles, with their matt finish, and more natural texture, so for me, it’s all about sile cutters, but you can achieve incredible things in outdoor kitchens with glass tiles. 

Glass tiles tend to weather better outdoors, but there is loads of choice, from glazed ceramics to vinyl click, which can all look great in the garden when done well.

Why You Need a Tile Cutter

When we bought our first house, we tried to scrimp and save at every corner, using old fashioned tile saw attachments for hacksaws. It took ages!

So when we moved into our new place we decided that if there was one tool we were going to invest in, even if it was just to save time this once, it was a tile cutter.

For any tile fitting job, neat cuts mean neat joins. Tile cutters are the only way to achieve crisp cuts on any kitchen, bathroom, or garden fit-out.

Different Types of Tile Cutters

There are four types of tile cutters; tile saws, sile cutters, glass cutters, and vinyl tile cutters. For each job, you’ll need the right tool, for the right material, but the best ones in terms of versatility are tile saws as they are typically able to cope with most materials other than vinyl, which can split under the movement.

Sile Cutters

Sile cutters are what spring to mind whenever I think about tiling, because that’s what most of my experience has been with, and they’re the simplest tool to use. They are ideal for porcelain, and any ceramic or stone tile.

Sile cutters work by scoring the tile as finely as possible, creating a weak point across the length of a tile. Then, by placing the scored line on a hard ridge, and applying even pressure on either side, sile cutters are able to split tiles neatly without any loss of material.

The downside of sile cutters is that they are only capable of straight edges. There is no way to create acute angles in tiles with a sile cutter, so to go around sockets or posts, you will need a tile saw.

Glass Cutter

Glass cutters are relatively intuitive, applying sprung pressure to glass, which allows you to create incredible shapes in this brittle material. Traditional tools are the best here.

The glass cutters that were used to build ancient stained glass windows are still the same style we use to create contemporary mosaics today. Glass cutters work so well thanks to the arrangement of particles in glass, which is formed by heating silica (usually from quartz sand). 

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While quartz has a very defined particle structure resulting in geometric crystals, glass pushes and pulls that structure when it's heated, meaning the particles are joined together at incredibly uneven intervals, so there is no decided line for the glass to split along like most other materials.

By weaving hand-held tile cutters along the surface of the glass, and then gently tapping on the underside of the score, you open up those particle joins and can create any shape you want.

Vinyl Tile Cutter

Vinyl tiles are a trading name for PVC backed with fibreglass or felt. They are incredibly easy to cut once you score them and can be cut with a Stanley knife if you don’t have access to a tile cutter. However, vinyl tile cutters provide much neater cuts and are far more reliable.

Ceramic Tile Saw

Ceramic tile saws are the only option when you have intricate tile cutting to do. If you have plug sockets to tile around or install a tile floor around pergola posts, then you need a tile saw.

To create acute angles within tiles there is no other tool capable of those joins. Ceramic tile saws are designed to cut porcelain, terracotta and earthenware tiles, but the best tile saws can also cut glass. 

Electric tile saws will always have a reservoir of water too, ensuring that your tile is cut evenly and helping to lubricate the blade without building up oils in the blade mechanisms.

Other Tools for Cutting Tiles

Once you’ve cut your tiles, there are a few other tools you’re going to need. Remember, these materials are brittle, so they need extra care and attention, but there are some really clever tools you can use to make light work of drilling holes, and even whittling away small nicks in ceramics.

But before we talk about those tools in more detail, one tool that has made my life easier this year for tiling projects has been our corner gauge, which accurately flexes into corners to provide a cutting guide. Before these tools, we had to spend ages creating paper templates to follow. Now those shapes are created in seconds.

Tile drill bits

If you’re cutting glass or standard ceramic tiles you’ll need a glass and tile drill bit, but make sure it has a carbide tip so it doesn’t wear out too quickly. For porcelain, you need a diamond-tipped drill bit, which effectively sands a hole through the tile.

Diamond tipped drill bits for porcelain are designed to delicately wear away holes in tiles that are incredibly likely to crack under located pressure.

Tile pliers

End cutting pliers, and nibbling pliers are relatively similar tools, but they each have slightly different jobs. The shared purpose of both is for intricate tile nibbling (as the name suggests). Tile end cutters are useful for breaking away scored parts of awkward corners, but also for scraping-out notches in softer materials. 

Tile nibblers are used for expanding holes and trimming corners once you’ve drilled your initial holes through the tile. Because of that, both types of tile pliers need to be kept incredibly sharp, so should always be sharpened before use.

1. Spear & Jackson Heavy Duty Tile Sile Cutter

I’ve had this Spear and Jackson tile cutter for a few years now. We’ve fitted our kitchen, and bathroom with it, and used it for a few craft projects in the garden (mosaic birdbaths, and some paving inlays using leftover tiles).

It’s not the best cutter in the world by a long way, with a narrow cutting base that increases the risk of unnecessary breaks, and means uneven pressure if you move the tile away from the scored edge, but it gets the job done on a budget.

One caution with this tile cutter is that it does require regular oiling along the guide bars, which can seize up after a few uses.

2. Roberts 10-900 12" Vinyl Tile Cutter

There’s much less risk with vinyl tile cutters as they are built for one purpose, and one purpose only; cutting vinyl tiles. 

Vinyl tiles are PVC with a fibreglass backing for strength, so can be cut through with a hand blade, but for quick (and neat) results, you need a vinyl tile cutter that acts as a guillotine, reducing stress on the material, and reducing the risk of splits when you snap-break the tiles.

Robert’s always makes great tools, and the storage box included with this tile cutter is a handy addition to keep it stored away safely in the garage when it’s not in use.

3. Yakamoz 2-19mm Tungsten Carbide Glass Cutter

Old fashioned tile cutters are still the best way to cut glass. Tile saws create frosted edges that can be hard to polish, while glass cutters create natural breaks in the glass meaning they still reflect light back out from all angles even after cutting.

The Yakamoz cutter comes as a two-pack too, which adds to the value, but the best thing about it is the oil reservoir in the hollowed-out handle that is slowly fed to the cutting wheel.

There are two really important differences between this and a modern glass cutter that makes the traditional style more efficient; the oil feed, and the weighted cap. The cap on the end of the handle is for tapping against the glass (rock it in your fingers gently until you notice a fissure from front to back along your scored line).

Sometimes, the basics are enough. Spear & Jackson are better known for their garden tools than their DIY accessories, so I’ve always been pleasantly surprised by how long-lasting, how sturdy, and how efficient the Spear & Jackson Tile Sile Cutter is.

The padded sides create an even base for scoring, and the breaker handle gives even pressure against the softer edges to help break tiles with minimum risk. 

Tile Cutters Frequently Asked Questions

Can you cut tile without a wet saw?

Most tiles can be cut without expensive wet saws, but it’s not possible to create curves or internal angles in ceramic tiles without wet saws. For straight edges, simple sile tile cutters are the most efficient, but they won’t work on harder materials.

How do you cut tile without chipping it?

To cut tiles without chipping them, make sure you sharpen your blades or scorers and add lubricant to the blade. Some tile saws have water automatically fed in to reduce chipping, but it’s still useful to use a dressing stone, which effectively just reduces friction.

Can you score and snap porcelain tiles?

Porcelain tiles can be scored and snapped just like any other ceramic tile, but they are much harder to break and more likely to crack in the wrong place.

It’s much safer to use a tile saw with porcelain, but if you are stuck with a sile cutter, make sure to score more than you normally would before trying to snap porcelain.