Worn jack blades

[Eben Horton]

Yeah Larry. They are so good. Do you have a pair with the beak tips?? Those are my favorite

[Larry Cazes]

Originally Posted by Eben Horton

Yeah Larry. They are so good. Do you have a pair with the beak tips?? Those are my favorite

Yes. I have two of the large and 1 of each of the smaller sizes. The large are my primaries that I use every day.

[Peter Andres]

Originally Posted by Pete VanderLaan

My best pair of jacks was made for me by Shorty Finley out of a leaf Spring on an old chevy. Those sadly vanished but they were light and held wax well.
Of all of them, I really miss the one's Shorty made but a lot of that is probably sentimental.

Pete!
I have a pair of jacks I bought from Shorty! ($15 in 1982). Long blades, the grip and top end were painted light yellow. Shorty said a friend made them from an old set of bed rails. They were my go to jacks for many years. Yes, sentimental!

[David Patchen]

Jacks are deceivingly tricky. They seem really straightforward but alignment, action, blade profile and blade composition are all pretty exacting if you want them to work well. I've made a ton of tools and have a great time doing so, but there are some tools I'd rather buy from expert makers and most bench hand tools fall into that category.

If you'd rather make your own and find the challenge fun, great, but if you appreciate that someone else has sorted this out and would rather spend your time blowing glass, consider buying some nice handmade tools.

I have two of my favorite medium jacks for sale if you're interested. Brand new Maruko (handmade in Japan); stable and smooth on the glass. They are $430 retail, I'll sell these for $390. No doubt you could make jacks for way less, but I really doubt they would be nearly as sweet as these.

[Eben Horton]

Bumping this back to the top... Sean... if you see this, how are your D6 blades holding up?

[David Patchen]

And I have Maruko a number of brand new medium jacks, cup jacks and tweezers for sale. Contact me through my website if you're interested: www.davidpatchen.com

[Eben Horton]

Originally Posted by David Patchen

And I have Maruko a number of brand new medium jacks, cup jacks and tweezers for sale. Contact me through my website if you're interested: www.davidpatchen.com

You are like the drug dealer on the corner... “pssst! Hey kid... I got what you need”

[David Patchen]

Originally Posted by Eben Horton

You are like the drug dealer on the corner... “pssst! Hey kid... I got what you need”

But I do!

[Sean Jones]

The D6 blades I made for my jack have warn somewhat. I’m surprised, they’re as hard as hell but I’m not a good enough blower yet not not grind them into cooling neck lines.
I’ve just made a pair with D2 which is air hardening (don’t need to be quenched in water/oil). I’ll try to compare them with the D2 after the same number of hours and report back.

[Pete VanderLaan]

Jacks really suffer when you work glass too cold.

[Eben Horton]

Originally Posted by Sean Jones

The D6 blades I made for my jack have warn somewhat. I’m surprised, they’re as hard as hell but I’m not a good enough blower yet not not grind them into cooling neck lines.
I’ve just made a pair with D2 which is air hardening (don’t need to be quenched in water/oil). I’ll try to compare them with the D2 after the same number of hours and report back.

That’s crazy. I would have thought that the D6 would last forever.

You should be working hotter and jacking earlier. Try taking your last gather and block it as one would normally block. Then when the gather is centered, lift the back of your blow pipe up and let the glass flow off the pipe a bit. Then, take your well waxed jacks and squeeze in half of a jack line before you even blow up your piece. It should be effortless. From there I’d marvel the bottom a little, reheat, stretch , blow and jack some more. If you do it all hot, your jacks should last forever.

[Travis Frink]

Originally Posted by David Patchen

But I do!

If the first time is free, send me a pair of cup jacks.

[Michael Ahlefeldt-Laurvig]

One totally unexplainable thing I see people do is move the jacks rapidly up and down as they are cutting down, which is then exposing the cut to cold metal constantly rather than cutting down a few seconds smoothly with the jacks in the same position, then releasing the cut and letting it heat up for a bit and then continuing with a second an final cut.
It is totally detrimental to what you want to do. But you see it all the time

[Michael Ahlefeldt-Laurvig]

My everyday jacks used for 30 years has a little wear close to the ends where I cut down small things, it actually improves them- its a bit of a sweet spot.
Not knowing anything about steel as such, I have a really nice jacks where the blades are really slender. You can bend them easily by hand. They obviously are not hard steel nor are they tempered. There is no wear on them at all - I invite an explanation

[Pete VanderLaan]

I wore out a pair of jacks making 750 4 inch paperweights for the same client. Big groove in the blade but it was all me and being complacent. I replaced that blade with cutting edge and the next 1500 went fine.

Don't take orders like this is what I would advise.

[Michael Ahlefeldt-Laurvig]

2250 paperweights? See thats why you dont want to be a glassblower

[Pete VanderLaan]

plus 750 vases that all went into handmade velvet lined boxes. There was this company named WAMU which stood for Washington Mutual. It was a mortgage company. These were the awards for their best selling loan officers to be given out at at the annual meeting held in Cancun. They flew everyone there at Company expense.

I was very well paid although I was thoroughly sick of it only halfway through. We persisted. Each piece had dichroic in it. I don't remember how many sheets we cut up. I do recall it being well over 100. We went to Hawaii when we were done. They weren't cheap- $250 bucks for each weight. The vases were $400.

WAMU? They declared bankruptcy. I wore out a pair of jacks- big groove.

Doing Corporate awards can be really lucrative but awful.

[Pete VanderLaan]

Originally Posted by Michael Ahlefeldt-Laurvig

2250 paperweights? See thats why you dont want to be a glassblower

***
More like "why I don't need to be a glassblower"

[Scott Novota]

Well, I do have a pair of medium jacks that I have sent back to Jim 3 times over the last hand full of years...last week being the third.

It is funny, the window of wear has a Moore's law sort of progression.

After 2 years, new blades. The second round took about 5 years, now the third round took about 10. I figure if I am honest with myself this is my last blade replacement....that is sobering.

The large jacks and cup jacks blades look brand new and they are at least 10 years old. Those poor medium jacks just get all the grunt work.

[Pete VanderLaan]

Do consider what glass you were using.

[Eben Horton]

Originally Posted by Scott Novota

Well, I do have a pair of medium jacks that I have sent back to Jim 3 times over the last hand full of years...last week being the third.

It is funny, the window of wear has a Moore's law sort of progression.

After 2 years, new blades. The second round took about 5 years, now the third round took about 10. I figure if I am honest with myself this is my last blade replacement....that is sobering.

The large jacks and cup jacks blades look brand new and they are at least 10 years old. Those poor medium jacks just get all the grunt work.

Well... looks like you are getting better scott !

[Scott Novota]

debatable on that improvement.