Departed Canaan Valley at 8am on Monday, September 16 for a road trip to Milton, WV to tour the BLENKO glass factory. After 200-odd miles of scenic roadways winding through central West Virginia, we turned onto Bill Blenko Drive, crossed the railroad tracks and pulled into the large parking lot in front of the gift shop.
Multiple placards on the observation platform add interest to the self-guided tour. Glass-making terms like "blower" and "carry boy" are understandable, but "bit boy" and "gatherer" require some explanation. What first appears to be random movements of these players around six furnaces soon reveals a finely-synchronized ballet. Each blower has a gatherer/bit boy and carry boy that aid him in producing about six to eight decorative glass pieces per hour.
Usually pieces are made from one color of glass per day to fill orders. There is a large reservoir of broken recycled glass, but apparently the blowers prefer to work with new batches of glass rather than recycled glass. It is remarkable that the moist wooden forms and primitive metal tools look much like they must have in centuries past.
The gift shop has a nice selection of BLENKO glass items available at prices less than the typical prices at the tourist outlets. After making some purchases, it was time to continue further west on our road trip to Lexington, KY.
Posted by TBW Travel Today!
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