Thread: We Have Skills Too !!

Looks like you've got it nailed Tim!
Sounds like a very interesting class.

Pete <:-}

Lost wax casting can be a lot of fun, and useful too. Looks like you've got the carving down but another possibility is to put a actual mushroom in the plaster and then burn it out in a hot oven leaving a perfect mold of the real thing.

I have had experience with the lost wax casting process. A neighbor mentioned this last fall of having a good time and taking a class together.

The point for me now is more of learning the artsy end of things and casting a pattern of my artwork.

Here is a learning experience that I played with years ago.

https://sharprazorpalace.com/worksho...burnisher.html

My project for today was to make a wax belll.

I don't know if this will work but... In the background are some skulls I cast many moons ago and the one on the left is bronze, the one in the middle aluminium, the one on the right is a wax model. The mold had disintegrated with age so it has been tossed.

Upright.



On its side.



The next is a trilobite that I made a mold of and the results. There is a ring somewhere that was made with the 5th one. That mold disintegrated also.

Cool stuff Tim. Our local community college never has course like that. There is so much a guy can learn.

These classes are through our local school district. That is one advantage of living in the big city. Although I took a reloading class at the rural local school with my father back in the 70's.

You wouldn't find one of those in this day and age I think.

Back in the early 50's when my dad was in the Navy he had purchased a few mementos when he was on shore leave in Japan. One of them was seven small figurines on a wooden stand. I would find out later that they were 'Seven Lucky Gods'.

My son loved them and when dad passed my mom gave them to him. Unfortunately whatever kind of plastic they had been made of they had started to disintegrate. My son finally and very reluctantly tossed them out as they were just crumbling.

Well I'd been looking for something similar to get for him and while not quite the same I did find some at FleaBay that were said to be made of Ox bone. I took a chance and for under $20 they arrived. Here's the seller's pic;



They didn't show any of the capillary holes however they did have a 'plug' on top and bottom (apparently to hide where the marrow had been). When a hot paper clip was touched to the bottom I found that they were indeed bone. However as per the seller's description they were 'bone white' in fact they were almost pure white and I didn't care for the look so I broke out the vacuum chamber and the light mineral oil.

I covered them in the oil and drew a vacuum and let it bubble away for a couple of hours until the bubbling had pretty much stopped.

Here they are laying on their back on a window sill. .



These will be a birthday present for him next April. I'll try to get better pictures once Ski and I make a stand for them. I'm thinking about White Oak for the shelves and some of Ski's Black Walnut for the end pieces.

Looks good Roy. Ox bone is suppose to be the most dense of all the livestock bone and it is prized for its lack of osteos and is used in Majong pieces. I had read that because of the Majong market, that is is really hard to get any ox bone. Nicely oiled bone beats dry bleached bone every time.
:-)

Thanks to that experiment that we jointly did on your bone for scales I was able to make the change from the 'Blah Bleached' to some nice 'Oiled Sheen'. They actually are more of a 'Golden yellow' with streaks of white but I can't capture the actual color. (the ones on both ends are closer in the actual color than the ones in the middle) Maybe once it's done the light box can help.

Now if the excess oil that's inside the plugs will stop leaking out. Oh well at least I know I treated the bone inside and out.

You have until April....