Marilynn,
Looking at the molds and with a little research I would say that this
may not have been as labor intensive as you think. Birenguccio in his
pyrotechnica talks of casters joining many moulds together and pouring
them all at once. Now I grant you that he is talking about early
Renascence, but he also states that this is a very old practice.
If there were hundreds of these molds on the dig site, it is quite
possible that the casters would bundle them all into sets, then pack the
sets up together. Then run a Monsoon wind driven furnace to do the melt.
That way they could melt the bronze and run it into the hundreds of
moulds all at one time.
Once the melt was done the moulds could be opened and the bolts removed
to sharpen.
Terry Griner
Hobby foundry man
-----Original Message-----
From: Arch-Metals Group [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of
Donald B Wagner
Sent: Thursday, May 19, 2005 8:53 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Vietnamese stone mould for bronze crossbow-bolt
Dear all,
Marilynn Larew has now sent some better photographs of the Vietnamese
stone moulds, and I have placed them here:
http://donwagner.dk/VNmolds.pdf
Regards
Don Wagner
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