Not too many tools are required for neon work, just a few fires to melt glass, a grease pencil to mark it, a file to cut it, a table to work on, a blow hose and corks, some pattern material.

Three kinds of fires are used. The main one is a crossfire, which is a series of torches aimed at the same point from two sides. This delivers plenty of heat from both sides at one point. The next one is the hand torch, which is like a little portable crossfire -- it is used like a crossfire when it would be easier to move the torch than the glass. The last fire is the ribbon burner, which produces a sheet of flame of adjustable length. It is used for sweeping curves.

The blow hose is simply some rubber hose with a mouthpiece on one end and a way to attach it to tubing on the other. The mouthpiece you make yourself out of small-diameter glass tubing. You can attach the other end to the tubing by either a hollow cork or some sort of airtight coupling. I use the rubber boots from alligator clips with good results.

Patterns can be drawn on transbestos or nonbestos, both of which are basically non-flammable paper materials. Another approach, which I use, is to simply draw the pattern on ordinary paper and lay some window screen on top of it to protect it from the heat.