Punties

What it is

A punty (pontil) is a metal rod with a small amount of hot glass on its tip, onto which a blown piece is transferred from the blowpipe for final shaping and finishing.⁠^⁠[1] On Murano the standard punty is about 130 cm long and 1 cm thick, with longer, thicker, solid or hollow versions for bigger work, often with an enlarged end as a counterweight.⁠^⁠[2] Step-down punties narrow at the tip: Steinert’s hollow step-down punty steps down to 0.5” for its last 2”.⁠^⁠[5]

How it’s used

Once a piece’s bottom is finished on the blowpipe, it’s attached to the punty so the top can be opened and finished.⁠^⁠[3] The glass on the tip is shaped to suit the piece: the Conciatore lexicon describes Murano punties shaped as a crown, a disk (for holding a goblet by its cup), a tripod for pushed-in bottoms, and the thin speo, or “skewer”, used to gather small amounts of glass for threads and decoration.⁠^⁠[2] The term ponteo also means the punty mark left on the finished piece.⁠^⁠[2]

The steel of the tip matters too: Spiral Arts notes that a plain mild-steel tip oxidizes and scales, which some glassblowers prefer because the glass can be shucked off it.⁠^⁠[6]

History

The pontil is probably a little later than glassblowing itself: the earliest blown vessels have no pontil marks, and were held for finishing with a clamp sometimes called a “snap”.⁠^⁠[4]