This is Neil Burridge with his little mobile furnace for casting bronze and our apprentice Rachel on the bellows.
Casting was quite like us steaming boat timbers a couple of hours holding everything at a set temperature with building excitement followed by a few seconds frantic work.
The clay moulds are pre heated in a charcoal kiln then stood up on a bed of sand.
all ready
and here comes the bronze
Some folk let the bronze cool naturally particularly if sand casting. Neil drops his into water and thinks this may give the tool more ductility. I would be very interested to know what the effects of heat treatment quenching vs slow cooling are on the grain structure of bronze to see if the science can contribute to the art. This is the moment of truth as Phil opens up the mould to reveal the tool. I am afraid I don’t seem to have photographed it up close, as soon as they had it out it was my turn on camera experimenting with it alongside one of Phil’s flint tools.
The Time Team special on boatbuilding in the bronze age will probably go out in the Autumn.
Here is an index for all blog posts on the Dover boat project
bronze-age-woodworking-adzes-and-axes
more-bronze-age-woodworking
bronze-age-boat-building-pictures
bronze-age-boatbuilding-part-2
bronze-age-boatbuilding-part-3
bronze-age-boatbuilding-part-4
bronze-age-boatbuilding-part-5
bronze-age-woodworking-tools-early thoughts
building-bronze-age-dover-boat-part-6
building-bronze-age-dover-boat-part-7
boat-building-steaming-timbers
filming-with-time-team
more-bronze-age-boatbuilding.
casting-bronze-axes-and-adzes
more-bronze-age-boatbuilding.
20-hour-woodworking-marathon
woodworking-marathon-continued-just 18 hours to go.
dover-boat-launch-day-end-of-3-months work.
the boat-that-didnt-float.
