I was very excited to pick up a shiny new blow torch from the post office! I guess that’s not something everyone would get excited about, but I certainly did.
I use an LP gas bottle for my jewellery making work in my home studio, which is less than ideal for what I do. However, it avoids expensive insurance issues and other complications were I to use an oxy-acetylene set up inside my house or something similar.
The biggest downside has been the torch I’ve needed to use with the gas bottle up until now – a big, clunky, heavy Primus torch with a fairly inflexible hose which results in a sore hand and wrist if I need to do a lot of soldering. It’s just not designed for jewellery making.
In addition, the flame cannot be varied – there’s no way to add or reduce the amount of oxygen in it, which is a useful thing to be able to do.
My old Primus torch and the new Orca one side by side.
However, I’ve been using this torch for years and have adapted to it and have tended to notice the problems with it less over time.
But finally I found a much better alternative after a friend told me about a new torch she’d discovered which is designed to work with LPG bottles and is intended to be used for jewellery making and other fine work. So I invested in one!
My new torch is an Orca and compared to my old Primus one it’s unbelievably lightweight, which makes me very happy. It comes with three different sized tips which are easy to swap around. And the hose is light and flexible.
And best of all it has an oxygen inlet which draws in an adjustable amount of oxygen from the air around the torch. It’s still not as good as having air pumped in to it by way of an air compressor or oxygen bottle, but it’s a huge improvement on having no flame changing ability.
So today I’m feeling very happy about my new torch and I’m very much looking forward to putting it to use!
… Leaving Sydney, that is.
