Molds and tools for hot glassblowing
Established in 1968, we have been serving the glass community for a good long time, producing wooden blocks, tools, and custom-made molds. Our customers are all over the world, and from many backgrounds: glass designers, small hot glass studios and large factory glass works.
We combine modern CNC machining with traditional handcraft to make wooden blocks, tools and high-quality, precision molds. As we also produce blowpipes and punties, these too can be made to your personal specifications.
The Swedish Alder tree is traditionally used for glassmaking because of its durability first and foremost. It is dense, holds water well, is low in sap, and therefore excellent for working hot glass. This particular hardwood, grown this way has good structural stability, in the sense that it doesn’t move or crack too badly if it dries out. The Swedish Alder differs from the American Alder in USA, which is more porous, soft, and not really suitable for glassblowing at all.
Beechwood can be useful too, but it’s heavier and cracks more easily if it gets dry. Wood from Maple and various fruit trees continues to be used in some countries, but never here in Sweden, as our extensive experience shows that our Alder is superior to them. Also, the trunk of most fruit trees is simply not wide enough, as almost all our molds are cut in one solid piece.
We use only trees that have grown near watersheds, which may explain the wood’s exceptional capacity to hold water. It is also lighter than many other kinds of hardwood, which makes it excellent for wooden blocks where the matter of weight is important.
Size matters. It has become increasingly popular to blow really large pieces. Back in the day, it was the size of the lathe that was the limit to how large molds one could cut in one piece of wood. Really large molds at that time were therefore typically made with slats or ribs.
Today it’s more a matter of finding a big enough tree trunk that is good all the way through. Using smaller bits of wood, and piecing them together in order to get one really large piece is something we avoid as much as humanly possible, as this can result in lines that are visible in the final blown piece.
Utilizing modern CNC machining, today we produce precision molds in significantly large sizes. A lathe has its limits because some shapes would have to be made in several separate pieces and then pieced together. The CNC machining relieves us from those limitations. Of course, the final assembling of molds and blocks is still done by hand.