Glass blank mold and related methods

A glass container blank mold, comprising:

• a mold portion having a neck end, an opposite baffle end, and a molding surface located between said ends that partly defines the shape of an exterior surface of a glass parison formed in the mold;
• axial cooling channels formed within the mold portion and extending axially alongside and radially outboard of the molding surface;
• and
• heat block channel locators formed on both the neck and baffle ends of the mold portion, wherein each locator is visibly discernible from the end on which the locator is formed and located radially inboard of the cooling channels;
• wherein each locator has a thermally insignificant depth and is located such that, when a heat block channel having a thermally significant depth is formed at the locator, heat transfer characteristics of the mold portion are altered between the molding surface and at least one of the cooling channels,
• wherein the thermally insignificant depth is less than an axial distance from a surface in which the respective locator is formed to a parting line where a baffle or a neck ring meets the molding surface when the blank mold is in a closed condition, and
• wherein the thermally significant depth is greater than said axial distance.