- Restaurant owners ask a lot like "How long
Is my neon sign going to last?" and I try to politely
answer, "Longer than your restaurant."
- Today I'm at Brooklyn Glass
and I'm gonna go meet David Ablon.
He's gonna show me how to make a neon sign from scratch.
(funky music)
For awhile now you see neon signs
in restaurants everywhere.
- Mhm, we recently celebrated
the 100th anniversary of the neon sign.
- Oh wow.
- Maybe five years ago or six years ago.
- And when did you start really making
neon signs for restaurants all over the city?
- It's funny Katie, because one of my favorite signs
was in the 80's on Mott and Dayard
and we did a sign that said,
"we have Chinese food, we have Japanese food,
"we have Vietnamese food,"
and we did it in their own language
so that's one way of doing it
but what we've been doing a lot
of is really subtle lighting so like let's say
in restaurant Balthazar or Cafe Clooney
or Cafe Lexumburg, we've done neon in all
the beaded sconces and behind the bar.
You won't walk into this turn of the century
french bistro and say, wow, great neon.
(Katie laughing)
Because we've just made it like soft,
subtle kind of light colors.
- That's what's so so interesting and unique
about neon signage to me is like it can be anything,
like for me it's very like nostalgic,
like cinematic vibe but it can also be this
entirely different addition
to like the atmosphere and ambiance of a place.
- You look at her.
I think she's from Showgirls.
- [Katie] Yes!
- So it can be just like incredibly sexy,
incredibly in your face or it could be so subtle
like in this little lamp here because it's such
a versatile light source and super energy efficient.
- I believe it.
- It's also really easy to make something
really beautiful which you're gonna do today.
(funky music)
So heat it, bend it, then blow it
and that keeps the diameter correct,
so now I'm marking for my next bend.
(funky music)
- So, what can go wrong in this stage,
like what are beginner mistakes
or just things that can happen?
- Glass is kind of a dynamic thing,
you're not ever sure what it's gonna do,
so I could put it in the fire
and it could explode, hence the goggles.
- Great, (laughs) oh my God.
How often does this happen or that
you've seen or experienced?
- A lot.
And you see how I'm turning the drawing?
- Yes, not the.
- Yeah, this way I can bend up.
- [Katie] So bending up away from you is preferable?
- [David] Mhm.
- You're marking exactly where you're bending.
- Right, I'm marking the inside of the bend.
Now, a beginner would want to probably make
two marks to know how far to go.
When the glass is really soft your mind
goes to mush, so you really have,
that's why you don't even look at the drawing,
you have to know what bend you're making.
So now I'm gonna try the rimburner.
And you notice I'm heating a little more than my mark,
it's a lot easier than a little less,
you have to heat both sides of the tube,
if you just heat one side it'll explode.
- Oh my Gosh.
(Katie laughing)
So now we have to attach a second piece.
How does that happen?
- Well first what I'm gonna do is attach the electrode.
- [Katie] This whole situation, I just, it makes me nervous.
- You see I can blow.
- Oh my gosh, that's so cool.
There's like no seam, it's just straight
clear tubing, you are making this
seem so easy but I know better.
(Katie laughing)
- So I like to put it here to cool off the table.
- That's what these are for.
- Mhm.
- So, do you fuse this onto that
in a similar way to kind of?
- Mhm. - Okay.
- That's the last step though.
- Right.
(funky music)
- That's not terrible.
- All right, the first bend is here
on the inside, right here. - Mhm, mhm.
So you're gonna bend up.
There you go, keep going.
Pretty soon it's gonna get really soft
but I want you to try to keep it
in the fire as long as you can.
Okay, now bend it and blow it.
Bend it, blow hard, blow hard.
Okay now put it right on the table.
Drop it, it's okay.
Not too shabby but the first bend anybody can do.
- I believe you. (laughs)
- You're gonna want to mark it.
Perfect, absolutely perfect.
There you go, bend, bend your right angle.
(funky music)
- This one's gonna have a lot of character.
- [David] You're doing really well.
- It's, you know what it is,
when the glass starts melting I freak out.
I'm also thinking of T1000 with the hookhand
stopping the elevator when I see that glass.
(Katie laughing)
- Blow, blow, blow, blow, ugh don't stick, argh arh.
- [Katie] It's ruined, it's ruined, now what?
- And you notice, each one you're getting more control
of the glass which means the glass is getting hotter
so when you blow, you're blowing out more
because at first you waited for it just
to get soft and you made a bend.
- So there's like the right moment,
which the more you do this you get a feel
for like exactly when, how much, all of that.
- Mhm.
- I'm just blindly like.
(Katie laughing)
- So now you're gonna want to join this together.
- Ugh.
- Okay blow, stop.
Okay now put it on the drawing.
Beautiful, now you can continue.
(upbeat music)
- All right, so we're gonna continue this way?
- Yeah, we're gonna try putting on the electrode now.
Now gently blow, take it out of the fire,
and let's bend it, blow hard, blow hard.
Okay stop, okay, now put it down on the table.
There you go, why don't you start by using
the ribbon burner and doing this bend.
There you go.
(funky music)
Now bend it up in the air, look at it.
Kind of make it smooth, okay now drop it on the drawing.
You did it, this is remarkable.
We've come much further than I thought we would.
(Katie laughing)
I think you can do this in the crossfire
it might be a little easier than the handtorch.
(electric music)
It's all yours, go for it,
go for it, straighten it out, there you go.
(Katie laughing)
Now all you have to do is see if it lights.
(bass music)
So the first thing I'm gonna do is take
most of the air out of the tube,
but I'm gonna leave a little bit in.
If atmosphere is 760, we're at one.
Now I'm gonna apply high voltage.
And what this is doing is it's vaporizing
any impurities that are in the tube.
- Wow. - No gas is in here yet.
- A lot of work goes into making
a neon sign without a doubt.
- So, if it's done right it can last a very long time.
So now the bomboarding process is done,
the tube is very hot and I'm pulling
all the air out of it.
So we're going down into a really high vacuum.
It's time to put in the gas.
- All right.
- So, I'm going to stop pumping.
Now I'm in a very high vacuum
and I'm gonna put in a small amount of,
in this case neon gas.
That was a little test just to make
sure that it was good.
- There it is.
- [David] It's pretty close.
- It looks so good.
Do you think people realize that every
single piece they see is handmade?
I don't think people realize these
aren't being mass produced in a factory somewhere.
- [David] So now it's your turn.
- So if that suspicious area in there is not holding up,
what would happen at this point?
- It will either crack while we're bomboarding it,
it might have a a leak. - Okay.
- So I'm taking it slow and it's looking good.
This tells me if there's a leak.
- [Katie] Okay.
- You see the difference in color?
It's actually looking really good.
So I think you have successfully made your first piece.
- What?
Look at 'em.
So cool.
- It was really nice having you here.
- It was an awesome day.
I learned a ton.
(Katie laughing)
I hope you enjoyed this episode,
if you'd like to see more click here.
Welcome everyone I'm Katie.
I'm gonna be your server tonight.
Just to let you know we are cheering
for knights in all of these colors.
Yellow, red, what's our colors?