GTT Bobcat vs Nortel Minor: Which First Serious Torch to Buy?

Short answer: The Nortel Minor (about $325 on Nortel’s US-dollar listing) and the GTT Bobcat ($275 on GTT’s store) are the two torches people most often mean when they say “first serious torch,” and the honest news is that you can learn well on either. Both are single-stage, 7-jet surface-mix bench burners that run on propane or natural gas and are happy on a single home oxygen concentrator. The Minor is the decades-proven beadmaking standard; the Bobcat now costs about $50 less new, runs on remarkably low fuel pressure (down to 1/4 psi, which is why it works on unboosted household natural gas), and leads into GTT’s Triple Mix upgrade line. Pick the Minor for the proven soft-glass path and the bigger used market; pick the Bobcat if natural gas, small boro, or an eventual Lynx upgrade is in your future.

The two default first torches

Ask “what should my first real torch be” in any lampworking community and these two names come back more than any others. The Minor has been the standard classroom and home-studio beadmaking burner for decades. The Bobcat is GTT’s entry bench burner and the model most often suggested when someone wants a small torch from the same maker whose bigger torches they covet.

The comparison is unusually close on paper. Both are 7-jet, single-stage torches. Both are classified surface mix in our catalog. Both run propane or natural gas. Both work on a single oxygen concentrator. The new prices are about $50 apart, the Bobcat now the cheaper of the two. So the decision rests on the smaller differences: flame character, fuel pressure, availability, and where each brand’s ladder goes next.

One clarification before anything else, because it is the single most commonly repeated mistake in this comparison: the Bobcat is a standard surface-mix torch, not a Triple Mix torch. GTT’s Triple Mix design starts at the Lynx and runs up the line from there. If you want Triple Mix, the Bobcat is not it, and any listing or forum post that calls the Bobcat a Triple Mix torch is wrong.

Specs side by side

Editor’s note: the Minor’s ~9 LPM maximum-usable-oxygen figure is our own comparative placement, not a published Nortel number, so treat it as an estimate. Both oxygen figures describe the largest usable flame, not a minimum requirement; each torch runs fine on much less. Our latest read of Nortel’s Minor model and product pages (2026-10-06) found no fuel or oxygen pressure settings and no flame dimensions, so the Minor’s flame range is our catalog record rather than a figure we can point to on Nortel’s page today. The manufacturer’s manual for your specific torch always takes precedence.

Flame character: what surface mix means on each

Both torches mix fuel and oxygen at the torch face, which gives the quiet, soft-edged, forgiving flame that surface mix is known for. Neither torch should pop or backfire in normal use. In community discussion of mixing types on Lampwork Etc., the consistent experience is that premix torches pop routinely as part of how they work, while a surface-mix torch that starts popping is telling you something is wrong internally. That is community knowledge rather than measured fact, but it is broadly consistent, and it applies to both of these torches equally: a popping Bobcat or Minor needs attention, not acceptance.

Within that shared surface-mix character, the details differ. GTT specs the Bobcat’s range from a 2 inch pinpoint up to a 9/16 inch diameter by 13 inch flame, which the company says will work 1.5 inch solid borosilicate and handle up to a 3 inch boro pendant. GTT also frames the Bobcat as burning very clean with no carbon when run properly; that is the company’s own framing, though the clean-burning reputation of GTT torches is echoed in community threads. Our catalog records the Minor’s flame from 1/8 inch up to 3/4 inch in diameter through its 7-port all-stainless front end, adjusted by precision needle valves, with no tips to switch. Nortel positions it primarily for soft glass: beads, marbles, and small sculpture up to 3 inches in diameter.

In practice both give a beginner a controllable range from detail work to a reasonable gather. One experienced Lampwork Etc. poster flatly says the Bobcat will outperform the Minor; others have built decades of work on the Minor without complaint. Take both views as opinion.

Oxygen: both run on a concentrator

Neither torch demands tanks. The Bobcat runs well on a single 5 LPM, 5 psi oxygen concentrator and reaches its optimum around 8 LPM, with a maximum usable flame around 8.5 LPM. The Minor’s maximum usable flame sits in the same neighborhood, around 9 LPM by our estimate, and Nortel’s own page lists it for either bottled oxygen or a concentrator, specifying one 5 LPM concentrator to run a Minor. For a first setup, that means one used medical concentrator feeds either torch for most of what a beginner will do, and a larger or second concentrator only matters if you routinely push the biggest flame either torch can make. For how to size this properly, see how many LPM your torch needs and the concentrator vs tanks comparison.

Fuel: propane and household natural gas

Both torches accept propane or natural gas. Where they differ is what the maker puts in writing: GTT’s flow rate chart starts the Bobcat, along with the Cricket, Scorpion and Sidewinder, at 1/4 psi of fuel, which is the basis for running a Bobcat directly on unboosted household natural gas (GTT’s larger models list more fuel pressure at full flame). A Lampwork Etc. thread on first torches calls the Bobcat one of the best choices for natural gas, with a wide adjustment range. Nortel names natural gas or propane for the Minor but, in our latest read of its pages, publishes no pressure settings, so whether a Minor gives its full flame on your house line is a question for Nortel and your installer. If your studio has a natural gas line and you want to skip propane cylinders entirely, the Bobcat is the one with the documented quarter-psi floor. Either way, plumbing any torch to house gas is a job to do to code and to the manufacturer’s instructions.

Price, availability, and longevity

The sticker gap is small: about $325 for the Minor versus $275 for the Bobcat, roughly $50, with the Bobcat the cheaper of the two new. Neither number should drive the decision by itself. The Minor’s figure is Nortel’s own US-dollar listing, read 2026-10-17, a conversion from its Canadian-dollar price that moves with the exchange rate.

Availability tilts toward the Minor. It has been the default classroom torch for so long that used Minors circulate constantly, which lowers the real cost of entry further and makes resale easy. Longevity stories about the Minor are a community staple: one Lampwork Etc. poster describes a 10-year-old Minor still working like new after thousands of beads, and another still uses a 20-year-old Minor as a backup torch. Nortel’s maintenance story is also appealingly simple; the company says cleaning is just a fine needle tool, and the Bobcat likewise ships with a cleaning kit.

The Bobcat ships with male B fittings, in-line filter screens, and a stainless base with four mounting holes that GTT notes can double as a shaping tool. Small touches, but they matter when you are assembling a first bench.

If you are weighing a third option, the Carlisle Mini CC (about $340) is the other torch that shows up constantly in first-torch threads; we compare it directly in Nortel Minor vs Carlisle Mini CC. GTT’s own cheaper alternative is the 5-jet Cricket, a step below the Bobcat (see GTT Bobcat vs GTT Cricket), and every option in this price range is gathered in best glassblowing torch under $500.

Upgrade paths: the Nortel ladder vs the GTT ladder

Where the two brands really diverge is what comes after.

The Nortel ladder climbs from the Minor to the Mega Minor (about $349, the same 7-port layout with slightly larger ports, compared head to head with the Bobcat in Nortel Mega Minor vs GTT Bobcat), then to the single-burner Mid Range (the two-burner configuration is sold as the Mid Range Plus), and on to the Red Max (about $894), whose lower head Nortel labels 45-port (the same page describes rings of 16 and 27 ports, which total 43, so treat 45 as Nortel’s label) and pairs with a top burner that can be a Minor, a Mega Minor, or a Premix top with N11 or N3 tips. That last option is where premix behavior enters the Nortel story: the optional Premix top fire and Nortel’s premix hand torches pop the way premix torches do. The plain Minor does not carry that behavior; it is a surface-mix burner on Nortel’s own page and in our catalog. A nice side effect of the ladder is that a Minor can live on as the center fire of a bigger Nortel setup instead of being sold off. See Red Max vs Minor for that decision.

The GTT ladder goes from the Bobcat to the Lynx ($525) and then up the Triple Mix line. GTT calls the Lynx the first Triple Mix torch it developed: a 7-jet design that surrounds the fuel with oxygen and also injects oxygen down the fuel stream, and the Lynx platform serves as the center fire for GTT’s larger two- and three-stage torches. The jump from Bobcat to Lynx is a real change in technology, not just size, which we cover in Lynx vs Bobcat.

Which one to buy

Buy the Nortel Minor if you are primarily a soft-glass or beadmaking learner, you want the cheapest way in through a used torch, you value easy resale, and the idea of one day stacking your starter torch under a Red Max appeals to you. It is the proven default for a reason, and the community’s decade-and-two-decade longevity stories are hard to argue with.

Buy the GTT Bobcat if you have household natural gas and want to use it, you expect to lean toward borosilicate early (GTT’s own flame specs for 1.5 inch solid boro are generous for a torch this size), or you already know you want to end up on a Lynx or larger GTT torch and would rather stay in one maker’s ecosystem. It also costs about $50 less new.

What you should not do is agonize. These are both honest, durable, concentrator-friendly surface-mix torches with nearly identical core specs, and the skills you build on one transfer directly to the other. For the wider field beyond these two, start with our best beginner glass torch guide, and for the two makers’ full lines side by side, Nortel vs GTT torches.

Related guides

• Best beginner glass torch
• GTT Lynx vs Bobcat
• Nortel Red Max vs Minor
• How many LPM does my torch need?
• Oxygen concentrator vs tanks for lampworking

Sources

• Glass Torch Technologies, “Flow Rate Chart” (fuel and oxygen psi and flow by model, tested on propane): https://www.glasstorchtech.com/_files/ugd/0f433e_940fa1536d544665a118116eb9542e62.pdf
• Glass Torch Technologies, “Bobcat”: https://www.glasstorchtech.com/bobcat
• Glass Torch Technologies, Bobcat store listing (price and included parts): https://www.glasstorchtech.com/product-page/bobcat-1
• Glass Torch Technologies, “Lynx”: https://www.glasstorchtech.com/lynx
• Glass Torch Technologies, “Triple Mix Torches”: https://www.glasstorchtech.com/triple-mix-torches
• Nortel Manufacturing, “Minor Bench Burner”: https://www.nortelglass.com/minor-bench-burner/
• Nortel Manufacturing, Minor Bench Burner store listing (glass types, fuels, oxygen supply): https://www.nortelglass.com/product/minor-bench-burner/
• Nortel Manufacturing, “Mega Minor Burner”: https://www.nortelglass.com/mega-minor-burner/
• Nortel Manufacturing, “Red Max”: https://www.nortelglass.com/red-max/
• Lampwork Etc., “Surface Mix or Pre-Mix?”: http://www.lampworketc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=66482
• Lampwork Etc., “What should my first torch be”: https://www.lampworketc.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-293828.html