About GlassTorches.com

Who runs this guide

Joe spent 2007 to 2023 at Mountain Glass Arts, a specialty distributor serving glassworkers, and worked most sides of the business over those sixteen years: warehouse operations, supply chain, NetSuite administration, general management, and years running the sales team.

Sales was the formative part. When you are the one on the phone while somebody spends real money on a torch they have never lit, you learn quickly what the spec sheets leave out. Thousands of products, hundreds of vendors, specifications that change without notice, and the same sincere question arriving week after week: which one is actually right for me?

Torches were always the hardest thing in the catalog to answer that question about. Every maker describes its burners in its own vocabulary. Oxygen requirements are rarely stated on the same basis. Prices drift. The details that decide a purchase end up scattered across product pages, manuals, and decade-old forum threads. And the expensive surprise: a torch that looks perfect on paper can demand a completely different oxygen setup than the buyer expected, discovered only after the box arrives.

This site is the reference Joe wished he could have handed people back then: 65 torches from six makers with specifications, oxygen demands, reference prices, and honest notes about what each torch is genuinely good for, an interactive torch finder, and a full buyer's guide, gathered in one place and stated on the same basis, so you can compare like for like.

The ground rules

A few rules keep this honest. Manufacturer sources come first. Estimates are labeled as estimates. When something is unknown, it stays unknown instead of getting filled in with a guess, and the torch finder will tell you when it has left a model out for missing data rather than quietly guessing. Where sources disagree, we state the range and say they disagree.

The catalog currently covers 67 torches from 6 manufacturers, alongside a growing library of guides, and every catalog record keeps an internal note of where each specification came from. This is a living project: coverage keeps expanding and figures get upgraded as better sources turn up.

What "independent" means

No maker or dealer has a stake in this site or a thumb on its rankings. We are free to say when the cheaper torch is the smarter buy, or when a beloved brand is the wrong fit for the work you actually do. Some equipment links may be affiliate links, and clearly identified products may be sold directly someday; none of that changes what gets recommended. See the affiliate disclosure for the details.

This is not a manufacturer site, and it is not a substitute for the maker's own safety guidance. It is a practical starting point from someone who spent sixteen years on the distribution side of the glass world, close enough to the buying decision to know where it goes wrong.

Corrections & contact

If you make, sell, repair, or run one of these torches and spot something wrong here, please get in touch through the contact page. Good corrections and firsthand knowledge make the guide better for everyone.