iron bottle moulds needed

[Victor Chiarizia]

as many of you know i am going thru the federal paperwork to open a licenced distilled spirits plant ( legal Booze) a big part of my plan is to incorporate handmade bottles as packageing for the spirits. yes i'm targeting uper-uper high end drinkers so i'm looking for old and antique bottle moulds of any shape but at least 500ml in volume that may look good. i'll try to find paste molds before i go to wooden ones. got any you want to see used again? i'm going for that antique look. thanks, vic

[Eben Horton]

Vic, have you considered graphite?

[Pete VanderLaan]

Southwest Glass in Van Buren AR had he largest pile of iron molds I have ever seen. There were at least 5000 of them. They went belly up about four years back but I was told the molds were still in a warehouse there. I do not know any more than that. Mark Christiansen was the name of the plant owner. Most were lamps but who knows what else was in that pile.

I would also check with George Fenton at Fenton Glass. I am sure he would know where they might show up in W.Va. Very nice guy. Also check with Henry Halem. For production, Graphite would be better.

Don't you have to meet some ASTM standards for commercial bottle production or is that not applicable if under a certain number of bottles per year? I'm curious.

[Tom Bloyd]

I know that Dierk Van Keppel bought alot of those molds out of Arkansas, you might check with him, he probably has a good idea what's there. His #

I edited Dierks number out, sorry if that offends but it can be passed along privately so Dierk does not get a lot of crank calls. Sorry if that's not needed, Steve.

[Tom Bloyd]

Sorry Steve, Contact Dierk thru rockcottageglassworks.com

[Pringle Teetor]

Victor, did you fund any bottle molds? There is a guy in our area who collects old molds (he is not a glassblower) from factory glassblowing years ago. Brought on by our studio over a year ago to let us play with it. I can't remember his name but could find it if you are interested. Don't know if he would sell them or not - I can give you more info by PM if you are interested.

[Victor Chiarizia]

havn't been looking very hard lately but i'm always interested in leads to follow. have to work on the astm thing but i'm not too concerned at this point. thanks, vic

[Ben Buchacher]

I had this idea of handblown glass bottles of rum once.. Great idea! Be sure to let us know when you sell your first bottle. Ill take one!

[Ed Pennebaker]

Back in the late '80s Ro Purser was making some blow molds for bottles, similar to historical flasks.