#appliedarchaeometallurgy #ancientmetallurgy

Part 1:
   • Bronze Casting: 1000 year old bell  ...  
Part 2:
   • The core is finished  Bronze Casting...  
Part 3:
   • Making the wax model  Bronze Casting...  
Part 4:
   • The wax model and the mould  Bronze ...  
Part 5:
   • The mould, the firing and the furnace...  
Part 6:
   • Casting the bell  Bronze Casting: 10...  

The bell casting
Finally, the day I've been working towards for the last five weeks has arrived. Without the massive local support in Paderborn of many preparations would have taken much more time.
On the 16th day the furnace was built further, the building material was mixed with clay, and the mould was fired further. On the 17th day the furnace was completed, the mould continued to fire and my foundry team finally arrived. The charcoal burner also took the opportunity to do a lot of work.

On the 18th working day, exactly five weeks after the start, the bell was cast from three crucibles with 20 kg tin bronze each. This is the alloy Theophilus specified. At 12.00 in the melting furnace the metal was started to melt, which had already melted 3.15 h later. Nevertheless, we only cast at 17.20 to give the visitors of the Vespe the opportunity to witness the casting.
At 20.45 the bell had already been demoulded, as these early medieval bells have to be freed from the casting core due to their thin wall thickness while still warm to prevent them from cracking due to the shrinking metal.

More in detail info at: http://en.archaeometallurgie.de/roman...