Understanding/identifying what a pontil scar is.

[American]

I think the term is "wetted off," not "whetted off." I believe the term derives from the dipping of the shears in water to chill them before touching them to the neck of the nascent bottle. Thermal shock is what separates the bottle from the pontil rod.

I get the spelling of whetting from "American Glass", George and Helen Mckearin, page 24, illustration 13.

 

[American]

Arrogance is such a wonderful partner. Don't you agree Hairy, oh by the way its a blow pipe not a rod.

Whoa, attacked on a bottle forum. Trolls materialize everywhere on the internet. Pick up a book, a pontil scar can be produced by a hollow rod, which can be described as such as well as a blow pipe.

 

[Bottle 2 Rocks]

Whoa, attacked on a bottle forum. Trolls materialize everywhere on the internet. Pick up a book, a pontil scar can be produced by a hollow rod, which can be described as such as well as a blow pipe.

Most of us know that American, this was a reply to a certain someones going off topic and nitpicking my thread earlier about rods and blowpipes. I started this thread just to start with some basics for the new diggers about pontils who are confusing ABM scars from machines as such. Didn't need to get into a lengthy discussion as you pointed out earlier.

 

[SODABOB]

With respect to the McKearins and their numerous contributions to bottle collecting and researching, their use of the word "Whetting" with an 'h' was either a typo or they were misinformed. The term "Whet" or "Whetting" refers to sharpening something such as a knife. What some people refer to as a "Wet Stone" is actually spelled "Whetstone." Regarding hand blown bottles, the correct term is "Wetting" or "Wetting Off."


1888

 

[SODABOB]

General interest ...

Sometimes photos are better than words! Double-click on image for closeup. Notice the hole on the top of the mold,


File:National Bottle Museum; Ballston Spa, NY (35897031316).jpg - Wikimedia Commons

 

[American]

With respect to the McKearins and their numerous contributions to bottle collecting and researching, their use of the word "Whetting" with an 'h' was either a typo or they were misinformed. The term "Whet" or "Whetting" refers to sharpening something such as a knife. What some people refer to as a "Wet Stone" is actually spelled "Whetstone." Regarding hand blown bottles, the correct term is "Wetting" or "Wetting Off."


1888

View attachment 220951

Ok, I cry "UNCLE" to Uncle on whetting or wetting. Moving on to "the tool" , which I forgot to mention is the pucellas, which is probably spelled wrong too, deserves exponentially more discussion, since the tool was always within easy reach of the glass blower. It performed the bulk of the forming of the bottle or decoration after removal from the mold
O

 

[treeguyfred]

Soda Bob! so glad to see you in here again! it's been awhile..
...and of course I had been gone for a several months too...
Still, a source of very clear and concise info!
Thanks for the pics of the bottle making tools for the newbies and even some long timers
~Fred
p.s. I've been referring to the the BLM/Sha since the days of my Yahoo bottle group "Bottle Collectors", (well it wasn't mine to begin with but I did end up taking over the moderating from the Lady that was the founder and moderator) That was quite awhile ago. The website is dedicated to informing the public about antique bottles and clearing up many mistaken ideas and old misinformation. It's one of my faves.

 

[SODABOB]

Howdy, treeguyfred

Thanks for the welcome. I spend the majority of my time these days doing research and writing bottle related articles with members of the Bottle Research Group - which I am now a member of. They invited me to join about three years ago. Attached is an article that Bill Lockhart and I completed two years ago. We have two more articles in the works that should be done and available for viewing next summer. The one I attached took us about a year to research and write. Check it out.

I thought everyone might like to see these tools for a better understanding of what they look like. Photos like these are somewhat hard to find - especially of the Pontil Rod. If anyone can find a better photo of a Pontil Rod, please share it with us.

Take care and be safe

Bob

 

[treeguyfred]

Just got done reading your article Bob! Fantastic work by you and your partners! Funny thing about the article and the information in it... It's not my area of immediate interest, but I had an absolutely impossible to resist need to read it all and return to paragraphs, and recheck figures and images... It had me riveted to the computer for 2 hours!
Thanks for the work you and your fellow researchers toiled over. I look forward to more works!
(oh, and THAT's what you were doing for all that time )
~Fred

 

[Bottle 2 Rocks]

We have entered the twilight zone long ago on what was original topic about ABM scars on bases being called pontils by new collectors. All very interesting side notes but off main topic, lol.