I'd also direct you to this link which is David Willis's recent Corning demo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uni21...CBBC08&index=4
If you Fwd to about 45 min in you'll see him working on a loop where the tail is wrapped back around the rod. This is cold-seal city right? It's just asking for a crack, yet he's basically flame annealing it to remove the stress to create something which flameworkers are taught never to do.