Sand Pontil

gleaner1 · Jul 8, 2009

The clear cologne has an interesting "sand" or "chip" pontil, the only one of this type I ever dug. Harry Pristis, is there a proper name for this pontil?? Thanks, gleaner1

Harry Pristis · Jul 9, 2009

gleaner1 said:
The clear cologne has an interesting "sand" or "chip" pontil, the only one of this type I ever dug. Harry Pristis, is there a proper name for this pontil?? Thanks, gleaner1

[size=14pt]"Sand" or "chip" pontil scar is accurate. These terms immediately convey the idea. The end of the pontil rod was dipped in ground glass before attachment to the natant bottle. The glass chips provided a weak point in the attachment at which the pontil rod could be separated from the finished bottle. The resulting scar often has what feels like grains of sand adhering to the bottle base.

These terms are so much more useful, for example, than "improved" or "graphite pontil scar," which are vague or even mis-leading. Both of these latter terms are not very useful for that reason. Both are used (or mis-used) for a bare iron rod pontil scar. Therein lies the "improvement" -- no glass chips were necessary, eliminating a production step.

With an improved or iron pontil, the rod was heated red hot, then was applied to the newly-blown bottle. The glass adhered to the iron rod, but left behind a scar of iron oxides. There never was any graphite involved -- a complete misnomer.

"Open pontil" is a term often used in place of the more-accurate, "blow-pipe pontil scar." Here, "open" refers to the donut-shaped scar left by the end of a hollow blow-pipe when a second blow-pipe was used as a pontil rod.

"Glass pontil scar" should be used for a dab of rough glass that is not donut-shaped. That is, a dab of glass was used as stickum on the end of a solid (not hollow) iron rod.