Short answer: Both the Bethlehem Alpha and the Nortel Minor are entry-band, single-stage, surface-mix bench torches that suit a first oxygen/fuel setup for soft glass and small borosilicate work. The Minor is the slightly cheaper, near-universal studio starter at about $325, and it is the torch a huge number of beadmakers learned on. The Alpha costs about $25 more at about $350 and earns that gap two ways: Bethlehem lists more fuel options for it, and Bethlehem publishes a clear story for running it on household gas and a single oxygen concentrator. Neither is a wrong first torch. Your oxygen plans and which fuel you can actually get usually decide it.
If you are still mapping the whole system rather than just the torch, start with the complete glass torch buyer’s guide, then come back here for the head-to-head.
The two torches at a glance
| Spec | Bethlehem Alpha | Nortel Minor |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $350 (reference) | $325 (reference) |
| Mix type | Surface mix | Surface mix |
| Mount | Bench | Bench |
| Gas jets / ports | 6 | 7 |
| Stages | 1 | 1 |
| Oxygen (estimate) | ~10 LPM | ~9 LPM |
| Listed fuels | Natural gas, propane, hydrogen, butane (Bethlehem) | Natural gas or propane, with oxygen (Nortel) |
Prices are reference figures that move with the maker and with time, and the oxygen numbers are rough sizing estimates, not buying specs. Confirm the current spec with the maker before you buy.
What surface mix means for a beginner
Both torches are surface mix, which is the property that matters most for a first burner. In a surface-mix torch the fuel and the oxygen stay separate inside the head and only meet at or just past the face of the burner. The Crucible describes the practical result well: surface-mix flames are quiet and adjustable and handle both soft glass and borosilicate, while premix torches (which combine the gases inside the torch) tend to be cheaper, run best on hard glass, and are slightly hotter and noisier. Community and technical resources such as the ILPI Scientific Glassblowing Learning Center add that a surface-mix flame reads as broader and softer, with less velocity than a comparable premix flame.
For someone learning, that softer flame is forgiving. Uneven rotation and beginner timing punish you less on a gentle, bushy flame than on a harsh, high-velocity one. It is one reason teaching studios lean on surface-mix torches, and it is common ground between the Alpha and the Minor. For the full picture, see surface mix vs premix torches.
Fuel and oxygen: running each on a concentrator or household gas
This is where the two diverge most, and where the choice often gets made.
The Alpha is the more flexible torch on paper. Bethlehem’s operating instructions list natural gas, hydrogen, propane, or butane as fuels, and note that propane is the preferable and most readily available option. Bethlehem also frames the Alpha as ideal to run on household gas at about 1/4 psi paired with a 7 psi oxygen concentrator, which is a friendly starting point if you have gas plumbed to your space. For full-flame operation Bethlehem publishes gas at 2 to 5 psi and tanked oxygen at 8 to 20 psi as recommended operating pressures, with consumption of roughly 7 cubic feet per hour of gas and 27 cubic feet per hour of oxygen (about 12.7 LPM) at that setting. Our catalog records about 10 LPM as the full-flame tanked-oxygen figure, so the two published numbers disagree; take either as a sizing estimate at the largest usable flame, not a minimum you must hit to light the torch, and confirm the current figure with Bethlehem.
The Minor keeps the fuel list simpler: Nortel describes it running natural gas and oxygen, or propane and oxygen, from bottles or from a concentrator. Its real strength for a home studio is how little oxygen it needs. Nortel states that the Minor runs well on a single oxygen concentrator, that a 5 LPM concentrator is sufficient to run it, and that adding a second concentrator produces a larger, hotter flame. That makes it one of the easiest torches to feed on a modest budget. Our catalog carries about 9 LPM as the Minor’s oxygen estimate, again a rough sizing input rather than a hard requirement.
For sizing an oxygen supply to either torch, the oxygen concentrator LPM guide walks through matching output to appetite.
Editor’s note: pressures and flow figures vary by manual, by fuel, and over time, and manufacturers revise them. Our catalog notes once carried Minor line pressures of 0.25 to 5 psi of gas and 5 to 15 psi of oxygen, but a 2026-10-06 read of Nortel’s Minor pages found no pressure settings, so we do not present them as Nortel’s; ask Nortel for a working setting rather than fixing on one number. Wherever a figure here disagrees with the maker’s latest instructions, the manufacturer manual wins.
Price and what you actually get
The Minor is the cheaper torch at about $325 on Nortel’s own US-dollar listing (a conversion from its Canadian-dollar price that moves with the exchange rate), and it sits in the entry price band. The Alpha is about $350, also in the entry band under current pricing, so the gap is small: about $25. What the extra buys is Bethlehem’s broader listed fuel set and its documented household-gas and concentrator story, not a fundamentally bigger or hotter torch. Both are single-stage surface-mix bench burners aimed at the same beginner.
If the Minor tempts you but you want a little more headroom, Nortel’s Mega Minor sits at about $349. It is a 7-port surface-mix burner like the Minor. Its slightly larger ports, in Nortel’s description, run hotter and use oxygen more efficiently, and its flame opens up to about 7/8 inch. It is worth knowing about before you commit, because it all but closes the price gap to the Alpha while staying in the Nortel family. We compare the two directly in Nortel Minor vs Mega Minor.
Prices here come from the makers’ own pages where we have them, labelled as reference figures. Confirm the current price with the maker before you buy.
How they handle glass and flame
Both torches are built for the same core job: soft glass and smaller borosilicate work.
The Alpha has 6 gas jets arranged in a pentagon-shaped center fire on a 5/8 inch face, per Bethlehem’s product page, and Bethlehem states it will melt both soft and borosilicate glass. Bethlehem’s own lighting guidance is worth repeating because it shapes how the flame behaves: light the gas first, add oxygen slowly until the flame turns from yellow to blue, keep the flame as blue as you can, and keep fuel flow to a minimum, because on Bethlehem burners a loud flame does not mean more heat.
The Minor uses 7 ports and needs no tips to swap out, on a narrow head that is easy to manipulate; our catalog notes give its flame as about 1/8 inch up to 3/4 inch, though Nortel’s current page states no flame dimensions. Nortel positions it as the first choice for entry-level or small-scale lampworking, a reliable and near-indestructible workhorse found in most studios and teaching studios, suited to beads, small sculpture, and marbles up to about 3 inches. Its flame is quiet, soft, and surface-mixed, ideal for soft glass and smaller boro sculpture.
The honest read is that these are close in capability. The Alpha’s fuel flexibility and the Minor’s slightly wider published flame range are the differences at the margins; neither turns one into a clearly bigger torch than the other. We publish no flame-temperature comparison between them, because no maker publishes a comparable oxygen-fuel figure for these two, and a number pulled from mismatched sources would mislead.
Which one to pick
Pick the Nortel Minor if budget is the priority, you are focused on soft-glass beads and small work, and you want the torch with the deepest track record and the lowest oxygen appetite. A single 5 LPM concentrator runs it, it is ubiquitous, and it is widely available used, which lowers the barrier further.
Pick the Bethlehem Alpha if you value fuel flexibility (natural gas, propane, hydrogen, or butane on Bethlehem’s list), if Bethlehem’s documented household-gas and 7 psi concentrator path matches your space, or if the Alpha is simply what you can get locally or used at a fair price. It is a capable, quiet starter from a maker best known for scientific and production burners.
If the decision is close, let two practical questions settle it: what oxygen supply you are realistically going to run, and which fuel you can actually get where you work. Both torches reward a setup built around them rather than the other way around. For a wider view of first torches, see the best beginner glass torch guide.
Safety before your first flame
Both torches are surface mix, so the flashback protection to fit is what your torch and gas supply actually call for, following each maker’s own guidance rather than a blanket rule. Bethlehem frames surface-mix operation as flexible without flashback because the gases stay separate until they leave the face; that does not remove the need to match protection to your supply, especially with a concentrator in the system. Our flashback arrestors explained guide covers where each device goes and what it does. Whatever you fit, the manufacturer’s instructions for your specific torch and gas supply take precedence over anything here.
Related guides
- Best beginner glass torch
- Surface mix vs premix torches
- Nortel Minor vs Mega Minor
- Oxygen concentrator LPM guide
- How to choose a glass torch
Sources
- Bethlehem Burners, Alpha product page: https://www.bethlehemburners.com/torches/alpha/
- Bethlehem Burners, Alpha operating instructions: https://www.bethlehemburners.com/resources/operating-instructions/alpha-operating-instructions/
- Bethlehem Burners, technical information: https://www.bethlehemburners.com/resources/technical-information/
- Nortel, Minor bench burner: https://www.nortelglass.com/minor-bench-burner/
- Nortel, oxygen concentrators: https://www.nortelglass.com/concentrators/
- Nortel, Mega Minor burner: https://www.nortelglass.com/mega-minor-burner/
- The Crucible, lampworking and flameworking tools and supplies: https://www.thecrucible.org/guides/lampworking-flameworking/tools-supplies/
- ILPI Scientific Glassblowing Learning Center, burners tutorial: https://www.ilpi.com/glassblowing/tutorial_burners.html