Making and Knowing
A minimal edition of BnF Ms Fr 640

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When you have molded, it is good to reheat your mold on the smoke of the substance you are melting, because the cast absorbs the quality oef the metal, which runs afterwards more easily in something that comes from it.

Human bones are the best for casting once calcined.

To cast neatly, it is necessary that your substance be quite hot & to achieve this, when your substance is melted, throw in some iron scales, or in powder or otherwise E, for it heats copper a lot & cleanses it of its fat. At the end, when you want to cast, add some saltpeter, by folding your additions in a paper so that others not know what you are adding.

Sheep foot bones are even better than ox foot bones.

Oil & tallow make it really porous & crushed glass & copper alone.

Cendrée earth molds very neatly.

Ashes do not have enough body to withstand copper.

It is best not to mix the sands, but fill the box mold with one only.

Latten is always fat, & does not mold neatly. One finds that it comes out better alloyed with a quarter of copper, but it needs to be cast very hot.

Copper comes out well with a bit of metal. If you mix in metal within latten, it will be more brittle & more troublesome.

A slightly coarser sand has more body.

Sand from corp rock is always better, which seems like tuf in lumps, which has a beautiful & very fine grain, & a little fat. One crushes it, then one dries it in a skillet on the fire, until it is stops smoking, then one passes it through through a double sieve & fine, & one molds with it.

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Copper or latten cannot come out well if the medal does not sufficient thickness, & if it does not have it, give it some with some wax.

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Some cast through a hole made in the middle of the reverse side of the medal.

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Some wanting to cast large works in latten y mix in the sand some crushed glass to give the earth some bond. But it makes it porous, and needs to be repaired.

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One puts in lead for a large work to make it run, but not not
for
in a small one because it would leave filth all around the work.

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