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are made of earth or blades of copper, or iron, or wood covered with white iron, in order to bury more easily these aforementioned molds between the thin sheets of copper, and the stirrup or screw of iron.
Casting wax to mold an animal that one has not got
Take some white wax which is much more appropriate for this kind of work than anything else, because it is much firmer and does not leave as much filth, as much as you need to cast the animal that you propose, and no more. And take a half quantity of ground coal and neatly sieved through a cloth or coal sleeve, using it to give some color to your wax, that would otherwise be transparent and you will not be able to see your lines as clearly. Put your wax on the coal fire to melt. And when it is well—melted and well—liquified, have, for a full eared—porringer of melted wax, as much sulphur as a large walnut. Pulverize it. Melt it over a slow fire and when it is melted, do not leave it on the fire because it will become too hard. But take it off and keep stirring it with a little stick and when it has finished bubbling and is as liquified as water, cast it into the wax that you will have previously removed from the fire. And mix and stir both of the them so that they join together. After stir in little by little while continuously mixing, the charcoal that has been repeatedly ground, and in this way it will be very well incorporated. This is how you will know that your wax has gone beyond its ideal heating point, it will release no more smoke, it will start to have lines appearing on the side and not in the middle, and those lines will be close to each other. If you cast too hot, you will not be able to separate your wax from your mold and it would stick to the cast. When it is at the right state, stir it with a little stick so that the pulverized charcoal is well mixed in and has not fallen to the bottom of the mixture. And in this way, throw it in your mold bit by bit and not in one go, because wax is not runny [continued]
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This black sulphured wax is for fashioning round figures that do not come out of the mold. And they need to be burned in the moule au noyau rather than be opened like the ones that have something jutting out or an intertwining of legs and arms. And this wax, thanks to the sulphur, melts with little heat and leaves without leaving any filth. If by some misfortune the crushed charcoal remains in ashes, when you open the mold and blow on it, it will come clean.
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To make wax serpents or other things to affix to candles, it is necessary to cast them with esbaucher wax of all colors.