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Lampworking Torch: How to Choose One, Best Picks by Budget

What a lampworking torch is, how the types differ (surface mix, premix, bench, hand), and the best picks by budget from the catalog, with honest trade-offs.

By Joe Blanchard, sixteen years on the distribution side of the glass industry · Updated

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Short answer: a lampworking torch is a stationary gas burner, almost always fed by a fuel gas and oxygen, that you melt glass in front of while you shape it in your hands. So if you are asking what kind of torch is used for glass blowing, for most people the answer is this kind: an oxygen and fuel bench torch, not a furnace or a handheld canister torch. If you are buying your first one, a single-stage surface-mix bench torch such as the GTT Bobcat or the Nortel Minor covers beads, small sculpture, and small borosilicate for around $275 to $325. If you already know you want thick borosilicate or production work, budget for a two-stage torch such as the GTT Phantom or the Nortel Red Max, and for the oxygen supply to feed it. The rest of this page explains the vocabulary, the types, and which catalog models make sense at each budget.

What a lampworking torch actually is

The word comes from the oil lamps early glassworkers used as a heat source. The Corning Museum of Glass defines lampworking as forming glass by heating rods and tubes in a flame, and today that flame comes from a bench-mounted torch running propane or natural gas with oxygen. The same craft is also called flameworking, and plenty of people simply say glass blowing, even though most torch work is solid sculpture and beads rather than blown vessels. The torch you want is the same regardless of the label: a bench burner with separate fuel and oxygen valves, a face with a set of gas ports or jets, and a mount that bolts to the bench.

Two things separate it from every hardware-store torch. First, it runs on oxygen, not air. An air-fed flame is fine for soldering and for the small soft-glass beads a Hot Head canister torch can manage, but it does not have the heat density to move borosilicate or to keep a large gather of soft glass workable. Second, it is built for hours of continuous running, with valves that hold a setting and a body that does not overheat. If you are wondering whether a butane micro torch can substitute, the honest answer lives in our butane torch for glass guide, and it is mostly no.

The three decisions that matter

Surface mix or premix

A surface-mix torch keeps the fuel and oxygen in separate passages until they meet at the face of the torch. That makes it quiet, calm to light, forgiving of technique, and safe to run at low pressures, which is why nearly every bench torch in our catalog is surface mix. A premix torch combines the gases inside the body and burns a sharper, more concentrated, louder flame. In our catalog, premix is mostly the domain of hand torches for scientific and lathe work, such as the Nortel Unitorch, plus the one premix bench torch, the National 6B. The hybrids are the special case: the Carlisle CC, CC+, CC++ and GR run a premixed center fire inside a surface-mix outer, and Nortel describes its newer Arrow and Hydra as combining surface-mix and premix characteristics. Our surface mix vs premix guide covers the flame and safety differences in depth.

For a first lampworking torch, choose surface mix unless a teacher or a specific scientific job tells you otherwise.

Bench or hand

A bench torch is fixed to the table and you bring the glass to it, which frees both hands for the work and is how beads, sculpture, and most pipe and functional work are made. A hand torch is held in one hand and brought to the glass, which suits large tubing on a lathe, glass-to-metal seals, and assembly work where the piece cannot come to the flame. Some catalog models are sold either way, such as the GTT Sidewinder and the GTT Delta Elite. Our bench vs hand torch guide walks through the choice; for a first torch, bench is the answer for almost everyone.

One stage or two

A single-stage torch has one flame you adjust with one pair of valves. A two-stage torch adds a second fire, either a separately valved center fire inside the same head or, on the Nortel bench line, a smaller burner mounted on top of a larger one, so you can run a pinpoint flame for detail and a wide bushy flame for mass without changing torches. Two stages cost more, burn more oxygen, and take a season of use to exploit. Beginners rarely need them; boro sculptors and production workers rarely go without.

Best lampworking torch by budget

Prices below are catalog reference figures and change with the maker’s list; confirm the current price and configuration with the manufacturer before you buy.

Entry: beads, soft glass, and small boro

  • Nortel Minor, about $325. A 7-port surface-mix burner that Nortel pitches for beads, small sculpture and marbles up to 3 inches, primarily in soft glass, and specifies on one 5 LPM concentrator. It is a common teaching-studio torch and resells easily. Its limit is heat: large boro is not its job.
  • GTT Cricket, about $255. GTT’s most economical burner, a 5-jet standard surface-mix torch that GTT designed to get the best out of a 5 psi, 5 LPM concentrator, aimed at soft glass and first classes. It is not a Triple Mix torch; that starts at the Lynx.
  • GTT Bobcat, about $275. Two more jets than the Cricket and a wider flame envelope while staying standard surface mix. GTT says it runs well on a 5 LPM concentrator and is optimal on 8, which makes it a common first serious torch for someone heading toward boro.
  • Carlisle Mini CC, about $340. A seven-tube, fully surface-mix Carlisle (unlike the full-size CC, it has no premix center) with a bushy flame that people recommend to beginners for its tolerance of uneven rotation; see Nortel Minor vs Carlisle Mini CC.
  • Nortel Mega Minor, about $349. The Minor’s face with slightly larger ports, which Nortel says gives a larger, hotter flame than the Minor at the same oxygen pressure; its product sheet calls for two concentrators for borosilicate, so it is the pick if you already know boro is where you are going.

Our best beginner glass torch guide compares these head to head, and the Hot Head guide covers the canister torch that sits below all of them.

Mid: the first real upgrade

  • GTT Lynx, about $525. Where GTT’s patented Triple Mix begins: a 7-jet pinpoint flame that is also the center fire inside GTT’s larger multi-stage torches, sold as a bench or a hand torch. Detail and color work first, small to medium boro second.
  • Nortel Red Max, about $894. A lower head Nortel labels 45-port (its own ring description, 16 plus 27, adds to 43) with a Minor, Mega Minor, or premix top fire, which is what makes it a two-stage torch. The step up for someone who wants both a broad flame and a fine one on one bench; Nortel Red Max vs GTT Phantom sets it against the GTT route.

Our top intermediate glass torches guide covers this band in detail.

Production: thick boro and long sessions

What else the torch needs

A lampworking torch is the middle of a system. You also need an oxygen supply (a concentrator or tanks), a fuel supply with the correct regulator, hoses and fittings rated for the gases, the flashback protection your torch and gas supply call for, eyewear matched to your glass, ventilation, and a kiln to anneal what you make. Our lampworking torch setup guide takes an empty bench to a first flame step by step, and how many LPM does my torch need sizes the oxygen. The beginner setup cost guide puts a number on the whole kit, torch included, and what a lampworking torch kit includes shows which of these parts each maker actually ships with the torch.

How to read the catalog

Every model on this site has its own page with specs, price, and the maker’s own documentation where we have it, and the torch finder narrows the current catalog by glass, work size, oxygen supply and budget. The compare page puts them all in one table. For a longer treatment of the decision itself, start with the how to choose a glass torch pillar.

Editor’s note: prices on this page are catalog reference figures bound to the model records at build time, so they update when the catalog does; they are still reference figures rather than a maker’s live list price. Oxygen figures anywhere on the site are estimates at the largest usable flame, not manufacturer specs, unless a torch page says otherwise. Confirm the current spec and price with the maker before you buy.

Sources

About the author

Written and edited by Joe Blanchard, who spent 2007 to 2023 on the distribution side of the glass industry in Asheville, North Carolina. GlassTorches.com is his independent, manufacturer-first buyer's guide. More about the editor.

How this guide was sourced: figures come from the manufacturer's own pages and manuals where we have them and are labelled as estimates where they are ours; the catalog on this site is the source of truth, and where sources disagree the guide says so. Confirm the current spec with the maker before you buy. How we work.