
Comments on Sue's "bug-bear" ...
A pontil rod (or punty) is the long hollow metal rod glass is blown on.
No bits of glass have "a pontil" on them.
Well ... actually, a pontil is a solid iron rod. A blowing iron is the one that is hollow. But leaving that point aside ... the "pontil" / "pontil scar" thing has been 'cleared up' in the Quarter 3, 2010 issue of the 'PCA Newsletter' [it's to do with paperweights]. Drew Ebelhare, "
PCA, Inc. Artist Representative", politely corrected a correspondent's spelling with the following ...
"Puntel" is "Pontil", or "Punty" in slang glassblower terminology. It is also not a "Pontil Rod" as a pontil is a rod so that would be like calling it a Rod, rod.
So there you have it. We must not say "pontil rod".
Sue qualified her own second comment with:
I suppose, to be completely accurate, only HOT bits of glass have pontils on them.
Probably not true, Sue! It might be possible to have a pontil with a lump of cold glass on it - not in normal use, of course, but it could happen. That assumes, of course, that a gather of glass will not automatically fall off the pontil when it all goes cold. But perhaps it will? What do I know? Not a lot.
