It’s a limited edition Carlisle Lucio Torch designed by the Venetian maestro Lucio Bubacco specifically for sculpting in soft glass. I tried it out at this year’s Gathering and it was pretty fantastic both on tanked oxygen and on a Regalia oxygen concentrator.

It’s a fairly significant step up in heat from my Mega Minor and has a fantastic wide but very soft and fluffy flame which is exactly what i’m looking now that i’ve made the move from wearable beads to large sculptures. Most bigger torches currently on the market have that intense blow torch effect and overly penetrating flame that’s necessary for borosilicate glass but really is overkill for soft glass. According to Carlisle this torch will still work up to medium boro – i guess just slower compared to other torches its size?

The Lucio gives off a lot more radiant heat than my Mega Minor so i also picked up a kevlar sleeve just in case – we’ll see if i need it for long sessions. I’ll be taking the torch through its paces over the next few days both to see how fast i can adapt to it and how well it suits my style of work. I expect my current EX15 oxycon won’t run it at full capacity but that should be just fine for now. I’m also assuming it will take me a while to fully adapt to this new torch (hopefully less painfully than when i upgraded from my HotHead to the Mega, LOL) but hoping the transition will be short. Updates and assessment pending…

(Photo credit: Glass Shoppe Studio)