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Casting

Lead, which is mortified & weighty, wants to be cast hot, more so than tin. And when it is not hot enough, it makes lines in the medal. It Straw burns in it, provided it is hot. One can make a solder so soft & runny that it can be melted in a tin dish. It is composed of one part looking glass tin, one part soft tin, & another part lead. It runs very neatly and is cast in leaves, but the work is very brittle & prone to breaking. The best solder is the common one for casting well, but is leaves certain lumpy points. Alloy lead with tin so that the ingot that you will cast comes out even & shiny & polished, & without any eyes or bubbles except for a small point in the middle. And this sign will tell you that there is enough tin, otherwise the lead dominates too much. Sand is good for lead & tin. The good one is very thin & fine & lean, which however sticks together between one’s fingers. The sand wants to be reheated before being put to work. And once to mold with it, it wants to be very moistened & then reheated, not all at once nor with a burst of fire, for this corrupts & makes it shrink & crumble as well. But if you reheat it gently, it renders itself very stiff, once well moistened. One ought to pass it through a shirt sleeve for the finest one, in order to first put some on the piece to mold.

One makes a solder with quicksilver butwhich is white, but it is brittle. Make your box mold so that it joins well & that one does not see the daylight between the joints.

The Germans cast their leads very thinly, rather than very thickly, because it seems they come out better, but so that are not too pliant, being so thin, they mix a little tin with the said lead, which otherwise would fold up like wax.

The blackest lead, so say some, is the best & the softest & which runs the best. You will know its goodness by rubbing it with your finger, which will render it very black quickly.

The alloy good for running lead & tin is per one lb of lead, one lb & a half of tin aultr, so that the tin exceeds more than one part. It is solder which flows well & that is good for casting, but it is brittle.

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To make the lead flow well, one puts in a little quicksilver.

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Rub cuttlefish bone on a well smooth table to flatten it & one against the other & cross the two bones with pegs to mark the place.

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Cuttlefish bone molds lead better than anything else. But try it to see if it needs reheating. One ought to mold on the back of the bones & from this side for the marrow is more delicate there.

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The bone marrow towards the tail is more delicate & does have not as many stripes & molds more cleanly. The shell which holds the marrow, once calcined, is good for making sand.

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When you cast lead, one ought to cast it cast very neatly rather hot, & not at once & shake the box mold a little & cast two or three times. However, if it is cast too hot, it will rise up & swell. When it is very hot, it becomes blue, let it then pass this color deva & rest a little before casting.

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Some, such as printers, mix iron filings or pins in the lead, but in order to render it hard. But this renders it brittle &not it breaks under the hammer.

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Take a wirebrush to clean your molds.