The glass blowing furnace is the bread-and-butter of all glass blowers. Simply put, glass blowers wouldn’t even imagine themselves at work without it.
A glass blowing furnace is a device used for heating glass pieces to their malleable state so the glass blower can start molding and modifying them. Furnaces are used for a variety of industrial purposes, but the glass blowing furnace is quite unique and modeled differently from the majority of other designs. For instance, glass blowing involves the use of three different furnaces.
Glass Blowing Furnace Types
Here are the different furnaces used in glass blowing:
The furnace: the furnace is the first of three furnaces the glass material goes into during the glass blowing process. It is simply called the furnace, no special name whatsoever, and it contains a crucible that holds the glass material in its malleable state.
Glory Hole: the Glory Hole is the second of three furnaces the glass material goes into during the glass blowing process. It is used to reheat the glass work piece in between steps of working on it.
Annealer: the annealer is the final furnace the glass material goes into during the entire glass blowing process. It is used to cool the glass material slowly over a period of several days to several weeks, depending on the complexity of the work piece.
Every very good glass blower has a very good furnace working beside him or her in the studio.