Blowpipe

• The blowpipe is a hollow steel or iron tube some 4 to 5 feet long that is flared at the end on which the molten glass from the "glory hole" (furnace) is gathered for blowing. The pipe must be heated before it touches liquid glass or the glass will not adhere to it. The gaffer (primary glassworker) blows through the tube to form a bubble or bubbles in the molten glass. The blowpipe was sometimes used in the Middle Ages to blow glass into a mold to form a repeatable shape.
  
  

Marver

• The marver is a large, heavy slab on which the gather of molten glass is rolled to absorb some of the heat from it and begin the shaping process. In the Middle Ages it would probably have been of marble (which is what the word means in French), but today's glassblower more likely uses a piece of iron or steel.
  
  

Shaping Tools

• Various sizes of metal tweezers called "jacks" and paddles are used to block or shape hot glass. The paddles can be made of metal, but can also be made of wood or even pads of newspaper, in which case they are soaked in water to keep them from catching fire from the heat of the glass. Glass still hot enough to be soft can be cut with heavy metal scissors called "diamond" shears (from the shape the blades form when open).
  
  

Punty

• The punty or pontil is a solid metal rod about the same length as the blowpipe but smaller in diameter and is used to add small amounts molten glass for handles or other ornaments to the piece being shaped and to take the piece off the blowpipe when it is complete. A punty iron can also be used to smooth the edges of the piece.