This page will eventually have many interesting things about blacksmithing. Alas there is little to see now because my time has been taken up by other things. Here is a panarama from the stables at the Palace Laeken in Brussels. Would that I some day have a shop so nice. Regarding the stables, would that I someday live in a place as nice as those stables. Lucky horses. The far left and right photos could not be taken from the same location as the middle 2 so the perspective is a bit off, but overall it is faithful.

June 9th and 10th I got the opportunity to work with The Bronze Casting Booth at Southern Faire. I got this chance through the good graces of Bronx Elf who is an extremely talented finish painter (rooms, glass), and the training of her fiancee Mike (extremely talented leather worker amongst other things). Here are a few pics of the process. I'm the guy with the puffy blue ass on the left of the pictures (Mike is on the right).

Molds were of rammed sand (Petrobond, re-constituted with 10W40) either in a open face (usually designs were carved into it) or a much more complicated 2 part (closed) mold. These molds were formed by filling the drag (bottom half of the mold) with the Petrobond, and pounding the heck out of it until the drag is filled to the brim. The last layer of Petrobond is run through a fine screen called a riddle (it's riddled with holes) to take out leaves, burnt Petrobond, splinters, etc. This part sucks. I advise gloves. Then the surface is covered with talc. The master image is talced and pounded into the drag until it is flush. Undercut molds are not possible with this method. The locations of the sprues (pathways for the metal to fill the mold) are scratched into the drag and the whole thing is talced again. The talc is critical as it prevents the two halves of the mold from sticking together. Premature mold failure is embarrassing and not preventable with little blue pills.

Next the cope is thrown on top. (It's a drag being on the bottom but most people can cope with being on top - thanks Mike). Then the whole process resumes. A riddled layer (still sucks) then a lot more sand until the cope is full.

Last steps: you pull the mold apart. This is nerve wracking. This is where things often fall apart. you open the mold, set it aside carefully. One bump and details or the whole mold disappear. Did I mention the big mold halves can weigh 20 pounds? Have fun. You then carefully remove the master, carve the sprues and drill the hole for the metal to enter. Remember when carving sprues - metal is lazy. It needs nice round curves, straight lines, and big openings. We have nothing except gravity to push the metal in and it needs help. Last of all, poke vent holes through the top side. This gives the 2000 degree air and smoke from the burning Petrobond a place to go. Finally, you just have to reassemble the mold (20#), and carry the mold (40#) to the too-low casting bench and set it down. Be sure to cover the vents with bronze ingots to prevent the mold from blowing apart. This type of premature mold failure is hazardous.

Here we are setting up for the pour. In front of us are the two sets of crucible management tools. The first (closest to the front) is the crucible holder and will be used to pour the metal. The taller one farther back is used to lift the silica carbon crucible out of the 2000 degree blast furnace. The furnace uses a blower as most of you who know forge design can probably guess.

Here is the crucible out of the blast furnace. Mike is in charge of the actual pour. He controls the Y shaped end of the crucible holder and controls the speed of the pour. I'm the mickey. I have the narrow end of the holder. My job is to aim the molten metal exactly where it needs to be. I also open and close the furnace and lay out the tools. Basically boring apprentice duties - which I had a blast doing.

Here are three pics of the actual pour. The first is pouring into an open face mold, the second is into a two-part closed mold (which was my first mold), and the last pouring into an ingot mold. The ingot mold was done to slow down the casting operation as it was being done as a demo, and we couldn't make molds fast enough (or sell enough) too keep up with how often the bronze would be ready.

The next two shots are of opening my first mold. As you may guess, the mold is destroyed utterly. This is why you use masters to cast more of the same item. The Green man poured very well, I did a good job of cutting the sprues (with the massive help of my teachers) The second shot is the stinky victory lap we took with all our pieces, pointing out the finer points of our mistakes to the onlookers. I say stinky because some of the oil in the Petrobond burns off when the molten bronze hits it. Brought back bad memories of a thrown rod...

The last two pics are the finished products, first is the raw, uncleaned Green man with just the sprues cut off. The second shot is the cleaned up Green man with copper-sulfite added to green it up. Some day it will grace our gardening shed, when it gets built. The second piece is a 1 piece freehand mold of a Celtic knot. This was a major pain to do as I not only had to remember how to make the knot, but also how to interweave the layers, in negative, using clay modeling tools. I had to get a drink to un-sprain my brain afterwards.

Finally I'd like to thank Stacy for making sure I stayed hydrated and fed. I tend to get wrapped up in new projects and forget these things. This is dangerous in 80-90 degree weather, even without being around a blast furnace. I didn't realize until Monday that I never really sat down on Sunday. . .