Ferro and ferretti
Also called piera (Murano), ferriti, cane plate
The cane plate, and the small bars that keep canes from rolling off it, used when laying out cane for a pick-up.
What it is
The plate is a flat rectangle that canes are laid on to be preheated before they’re picked up on a collar on a blowpipe; in the US almost everyone calls it a plate.[1] Ferretti are two short square bars, about 15 cm long and 1 cm square, set on either side of the canes so they don’t roll off.[1] Correll sells ferros, 6” × 12” and 8” × 18” plates 3/8” thick, and ferriti in sets of four.[2]
How it’s used
Because hot metal sticks to glass, the surface of the plate where the canes lie is coated with wet clay and dried first, so the canes stay separate from the metal.[1] The plate goes into the glory hole on a pastorale.[1]
History
On Murano the plate is the piera, from pietra, “stone”: before large iron plates, glassmakers used a flat refractory brick, and before that, stones high in silica from quarries near Verona.[1] The ferretti (from ferro, iron) were once narrow pieces of refractory too.[1]
Sources
Ferro and ferretti in the archive 2
| Photo | Tool | Maker | Sellers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ferriti (Set of Four)A set of four ferriti. | Correll Glass Studio | 1 | |
| FerroFerro plates in two sizes. | Correll Glass Studio | 1 |