157r - - - - - The mode in which goldsmiths mold hollow molds
They mold their animal, or another solid work that they have already made or rough—hewn in wax and cast in lead, in two cuttlefish bones. When it is good and impressed in the two cuttlefish bones, they put a piece of paper between the two bones & join the bones and cast. The work comes in parts by halves. And then with a chaple they excavate the two half castings of gold or silver as subtly as they like, and then they solder or braze them.
Rouge cler
Some goldsmiths assay it on thinly beaten esp gold & that is well burnished with a chaple. But it is better to assay it on a gold ingot. And also assay your substances in large or fantastical work, since if they appear good & extraordinary in large work, they will show excellently on a common work.
Flies
They mold better on a single leaf than on a bouquet or a flower or the branch of an herb, since the single leaf is molded in two halves that being reheated can be opened up and cleaned well, & the cast will be better. In picking up the fly, take heed that you do not break its legs or let it dry out too much, because then the legs will fall off. And if this happens to you, glue the same legs back on with fish glue and wax, or adapt the hairs of a pig or the cords of a spinet. Fix the leaf on a flat piece of clay with two pins, and the fly with one pin in the middle of its body & the feet with wax.
Cleaning and degreasing your cast tin works, and others
Make some lye passed through scrupulously with good ashes, and it should be new & without any fat; boil your molded work in it. And the tallow and fat will leave.
Arranging an herb or flower to cast
Always put the front side of the thing on the upper side because it will come out better and neater than the lower side. Make the casting large & prepare the supraplus, which is the mass, after the founders of large castings, even for silver, which needs a very hot mold & is cast very hot. Very fine thing must be cast very hot.
at left bottom margin
When you know that the stem of a flower burned in a mold that will not open at all is totally reduced to ashes, this is the sign that everything else is well—burned.