115r - - - - - at left top margin
[continued]
if you want, which will be enough, or else on the two halves. But because one needs to cast by the tail or from the back of the animal, make it so that the vents come from the head & the middle of the body to respond to the tail, where the cast is done, which is the end of the mandore. And having done your cast, do not forget to make in it some holes and notches because the metal will run more neatly, as if the cast was even, for it gets corrupted in its notches & holes, &does not go so much at once, & does not become as porous. This done, join the two halves of your mold & strengthen the joints, putting around these some small clamps of iron wire of this shape. They prevent the molds from deforming & corrupting while reheating.
Warning about the above said.
If your snake has been without eating for a long time, it happens that, when you want to kill it in urine & vinegar, it fills with a lot of water & swells, and next it dries out as you fix & arrange it on the clay tourtelle, and next it happens that when you have cast your wet sand on it, & it has set, it ends up coming out such that between the snake and animal there is a line of distance, in which enters the second batch of cast wet sand. Avoid this therefore if you can. But if this cannot be, do not let this prevent your second cast, for the sand which will enter in this void, will be so weak that it will easily be removed with a small point, & will not have set with the first hardened one.
Note that one needs more alum de plume for molds which should be reheated, like those for gold & silver, & things that one needs to burn inside, than those which release well, & and that are only for casting lead & tin. However do not put too much in one or the other.
Animal after release
If, by chance, you gave your snake such a writhing shape, such that the place of the stomach cannot easily come out, especially since the head & the tail, which are the two ends, are thinner, cut everything which is outside, & reheat the mold so well that what remained inside burns, then pass some quicksilver inside & attracting the ashes & the burnt bones from the inside, it will also come out, because the conduit is big, & thus will not sour at all your substance. You can pull really strongly the molded snake, because it is soft & malleable & obedient & the mold, having set, is so firm that because of this the imprint will not be spoiled at all.
A reheating of the molds
After your molds have been reheated & and cleaned, the sooner casted is best, because if you keep them, they get corrupted and dampened. Reheat the thickest, where the body of the animal is, cast as soon as possible, because if you keep your molds it will corrode and become damp. Reheat the thickest part, where the body of the animal is, at the top, so that , if there is something inside to burn, it falls to the bottom.
Mark the part on top to recognize it
It is only a good thing to leave the mold to cool a little outside, one well reheated, because it remains red on the inside when you will cast.
at left bottom margin
It is the shape of the clamps