Founder

They mix beaten egg glair with earth with which they make the first layer of the chappe of pieces, & bells, & all other pieces, saying that the said glair makes it come out d neatly, & makes it settle, & seats the substance. In the noyau for a small work, glair is also good.

Rosette, to come out neatly, wants the mold to be a little hot & lead, which was also mixed with the rosette, similarly for small pieces.

Mortars

They should be of the finest material possible. In the same way, it is better to use copper for a cauldron than red copper, because it better resists a blow.

The mortars, therefore, used for grinding are stronger & there is less danger of breaking them if they are of fine copper. And for a private home, they do not ring so much & do not make as much noise as those of metal. It is true that those that are of metal ring louder for apothecaries.

Grenades must be made from fine metal

Sand from a mine

It wants to be well reheated for great metals. Some burn it in the furnace until it is very black, and grind it finely on porphyry. Others burn it with asphaltum, @but when it is too burned, it does not mold so neatly, because it does not have body, and is too lean. You can give some with tripoly or burned felt.

Experiments with sand

I have experimented with sand from Thoulouse, & after having reheated it well, twice, in a skillet, I passed it through a fine sieve, like the apothecaries’ double, without finely grinding it further on the porphyry, as I have done previously. I moistened it with wine boiled with elm root, and molded with it a large piece of a portrait of Jesus. I found it easy to release, without having it to knock on it Jen & molded neatly with one side in relief, & on the other in cavity, & of the thickness of a coin of forty sols. I cast very hot

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Sand from a mine, well chosen & well reheated, is the most excellent of all, without looking for any other mixtures, because it receives all metals. It does not want to be used hot, because it makes things porous. The most finely ground for big works is not the best, because it does have enough body to withstand

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