Gathering and making punties is the first real chance to actually use your actions to make the glass into a certain shape. in essence your first go at shaping glass.

There are many types of punties and many ways of making them. Many are made with just a marver and then some are made on a bench with either the heal of the jack or a metal or graphite pallet. Punties are one of the first things an apprentice will learn to make.

The most common way to make a punty is by using only a marver. It is also the quickest and most versatile punty

The glass is gathered to a pre determined size and then by rolling the glass up and down the marver, forming the required amount of thickness both on the sides and on the end. As with all situations concerned with making glass; timing is essential. If the punty is too hot when the piece is ready for it then it will take longer to centre the punty while waiting for it to cool. This can cause the piece to crack if timing is of the essence. If the punty is too cold then the obvious will happen; the piece can easily fall from the punty. If there is too much glass on the end the maker may need to wait long for it to cool down and also have problems centering the punty.

Wide and with a lots of glass off the end. These punties are particular ay useful when the pice you are make is fairly wide instead of long.

If they are made and presented at the right temperature they are extremely effective at keeping the piece stable and central. Even when re-heating in the glory hole you can get away with placing the whole piece including the punty fully inside of the glory hole. With this extra amount of time in the glory whole, it is possible to reverse the temperature polarity of the piece. This is a great help when you are trying to heat the the base of a vessel when the top is first in the glory hole.

The cross punty is very similar to the way in which you make the marvered punty though using a blade of some sort you cut a cross mark deep in to the glass as close to the end of the punty as possible. This type of punty is useful for glass that has a thin base and has a high risk of cracking at the knocking off process. Temperature is of the utmost importance here. to hot and you will practically weld the punty to the piece, making it extremely unlikely to see the piece off the iron without a crack in it. Too cold goes without saying; cross punties are meant to be a fragile connection between piece and punty. Too cold and the piece will never see the light of day.

The venetian punties are generally slightly longer and have more glass coming off the end of the iron. This allows for a pair of jacks to to cut in just after the end of the iron. this cut in mark is where water will be added to crack the piece off when it is finished. Venetian punties are generally ground off and polished to a nice finish as they can protrude out from the bottom of the piece.