One of the tool that blender 3d beginner user want to know at their early age learning blender is how to cut or make a hole/void on an object. Hopefully this cutting knife project article can answer your problem. This method is quite familiar with boolean modifier. The different is knife project only apply on face object. You later can add solidify or extrude the face, and add bevel to make any sharp part a little bit blunt.
For this practice we will create a cigarette ashtray. By the way, before we start this article course, take a look at my previous post about create a brushed metal material.
Now, on to the main topic. Create a new blender file, name it, and save as on your hard drive. After that create a Cylinder object and right away set its parameter like below:
