Herbert Arnold Arni Glass Torch

The Herbert Arnold Arni, model 126/12, is the smaller of Arnold’s two bead burners (Perlenbrenner). It is a compact surface-mix bench burner with a fine flame for bead details, delivered ready to connect, and it sits beside the Big Arni on the same page of Arnold’s burner catalog. It comes from Herbert Arnold, the German glass-machinery maker in Weilburg, better known in the US for its Zenit bench burner.

What it is built for

Arnold describes the Arni in a single line: a fine flame for bead details. The burner is small to match, with a 20 mm head and a 6.6 mm jet ring, and it weighs 1.25 kg. That makes it a detail tool: the burner you reach for to add dots, stringer work and small surface decoration to a bead, not the one that heats a large piece through. For what surface mix changes at the bench, see surface mix vs premix torches; for choosing a bead torch generally, best torch for glass beads.

Arni or Big Arni

The two are easiest to understand side by side, because Arnold publishes them in one table:

The Big Arni is the broader burner, with a second zone and a bigger head; the Arni is the fine-detail one. If you make beads and want one Arnold bench burner, the Big Arni covers more work; the Arni earns its place beside a larger torch, or for a maker whose work is all small.

Fuel, oxygen, and fittings

Arnold builds the Arni as 126/12 PS for propane at 50 mbar and 126/12 ES for natural gas at 22 mbar, both with oxygen at 0.5 to 1 bar. In PSI that is about 0.7 psi of propane or 0.3 psi of natural gas, and 7 to 15 psi of oxygen (our conversions). One detail to settle: the catalog paragraph names only propane and oxygen, while the same page’s table and the price list carry the natural-gas version, so confirm the version with Arnold when you order.

Both gas connections are 6 mm hose glands with 1/4-inch threads, left-hand on the fuel side. Arnold publishes no gas or oxygen consumption for the Arni, so we record no oxygen figure; with a head this small the demand is modest, but size the supply from the work using how many LPM does my torch need.

Before you buy

Budget for the whole system: oxygen, a regulator for your fuel, flashback protection matched to your torch and gas supply, eyewear rated for the glass you run, and ventilation. Arnold recommends protection against reverse gas flow and flashback on its burners, and its general terms limit defect claims to 12 months from delivery. Our Herbert Arnold torch lineup shows where the Arni sits in the rest of the range.

Editor’s note: the model number, mix system, head and jet-ring sizes, weight, pressures, connections and euro prices come from Herbert Arnold’s burner catalog (page 35) and its 02/2025 price list, as read on 2026-10-06. Arnold publishes no jet count, stage count, glass type or consumption for the Arni, and we have no US price. Confirm the version and current price with Herbert Arnold before purchasing.