Blowpipes

What it is

The blowpipe is a hollow metal tube, usually about 1.4 m long, with a mouthpiece at one end and a thicker head at the other.⁠^⁠[1] Modern pipes have stainless heads: Spiral Arts makes all its heads from 309 or 310 stainless, and Steinert’s standard pipe has a 309 stainless head on a 304 stainless shaft, with a Delrin mouthpiece, grip, and stop collar.⁠^⁠[4]⁠[5]

How it’s used

The head is preheated, dipped into the molten glass, and turned so the glass gathers on it, “in much the same way that viscous honey is picked up on a honey dipper”.⁠^⁠[3] The gather is rolled on the marver, then air blown into the pipe makes a bubble; more glass can be gathered over it to build a bigger piece.⁠^⁠[3]

History

Murano’s glass museum calls the blowpipe the basic tool in glassmaking, probably invented by Syrian glassmakers in the second half of the 1st century BC.⁠^⁠[1]

On Murano the blowpipe is the canna da soffio. According to the Conciatore lexicon, canna only appears in Murano documents from the 19th century; from the 14th century the records call it ferro or ferro sbuso, “holed iron”.⁠^⁠[2] Pipes were once all iron, made by drilling a hole by hand through an iron rod, and the cold glass had to be banged off the iron head after blowing; with steel and stainless heads it now pops off on its own as it cools.⁠^⁠[2]

Choosing a pipe

Spiral Arts sums up the main choice, the body material:⁠^⁠[4]

• Steel (chromoly in larger sizes) is stiffer, and it rusts, which many professionals like because the pitted surface gives a natural grip; it starts to scale when heated past about 1,400°F.
• Stainless resists scale and is recommended for beginners; it’s less stiff.

Wall thickness changes the weight and stiffness: Spiral Arts builds most of its stainless pipes with thicker-walled tubing for straightness and durability, and offers thin-wall “Ultra-light” versions for those who prefer lighter tools.⁠^⁠[4]