NAME: (ALSO NOTE NAME OF YOUR WORKING PARTNER) Jenny Boulboullé, Celia and Sofia
DATE AND TIME: 25 FEB 2015
LOCATION: Chandlers Lab 260
SUBJECT: Comparison calcined materials for sand - impalpable?
Temp: cold, sunny winter day, -2

Comparison of the feel of different calcined materials ((sieved) and ground) used for sand making and mentioned in our manuscript:


Celia and Sofia have calicined alabaster over night in their ovens at home. After sieving the pulverized calcined alabaster they ground it in a mortar until it becomes ‘impalpable’. Some observations on how ‘impalpable’ ‘excellent sand’ feels:
If you touch it it feels like velvet or fine flour. The alabaster turned also a beautiful pure white, almost a bit luminous warm glow.
If you rub it between your fingertips you do feel very fine small sharp particles, reminiscent of a ‘stony’ feeling in contrast with flour.

1) alabaster: see above
2) Bone ash (commercial): Sofia:”it feels so impalpable that when I put my finger into it it almost felt I wasn’t touching anything”. Jenny: “I agree, in comparison I really felt how the notion in impalpable describes a sensation that meaningfully differentiates between different gradations of softness to touch and fineness to feel of different materials.”

Bone ash (self made, probably not fully calcined): Sofia: “is palpable”
3) calcined oyster pulver: Jenny: “it feels even finer than the alabaster, I would say more ‘impalpable’ than the alabaster”
Sofia” Grainy chunks in it, but the not chunky parts very soft”

photo.JPG
Calcined materials for sand





NAME: (ALSO NOTE NAME OF YOUR WORKING PARTNER) Jenny Boulboullé, Celia
DATE AND TIME: 15 April 2015
LOCATION: Chandlers Lab 260
SUBJECT: Casting tin-lead alloy into alabaster molds
Temp: warm, sunny spring day, 17 degrees

Casting tin-lead alloy into alabaster molds


For making molds from alabaster 'sand' see folio numbers 83r, 89v, 106v, 81r
For the casting with a lead-tin alloy we also draw on folio numbers 72 v and 139r, see below (I highlighted passages esp. relevant for our reconstruction in bold).

p072v

<title id=“p072v_a1”>Casting</title>
<ab id=“p072v_b1a”>Lead, which is soft and heavy, wants to be cast much hotter than tin. When it is not hot enough, it makes lines in the medal. Straw burns in it, if it is hot [enough]. It makes a solder so soft and runny that it can be melted in a tin dish. It is composed of one part out of looking glass tin, of one part out of soft tin, and another part of lead. It [the solder] runs very cleanly and casts in sheets, but the work is very rough and breaks. The best solder, for casting well, is the common one, but it leaves certain rough crumbs. Combine lead with tin so that the ingot that you are going to cast becomes smooth and lustrous and polished, and doesn’t make any “eyes” or bubbles except for a small point in the middle. And this sign will tell you that there is enough tin, otherwise the lead dominates too much. The sand is good for lead and tin. The good [sand] is well dried and fine and thin, however make it as fine as possible. The sand wants to be recooked rather than put to work [directly]. And to mold with it, it wants to be well dampened and then recooked, not all at once nor under a lot of pressure, because this spoils it, and makes it shrink and also makes it crumble. But if you reheat it, and take your time, it will make it very firm, to be good for molding. It is necessary to filter it through a shirt sleeve in order to make it the more fine, with the aim of putting it first on the piece to be cast.</ab>
<ab id=“p072v_b1b”>One makes a solder with quicksilver that is white, but it is thick. Make sure your boxis joined well and that one does not see any daylight between the joints.</ab>
<ab id= “p072v_b1c”>The Germans cast lead very thinly, because they think it is better than very thick, but as it is too pliable, it is so thin they mix a little tin with the aforementioned lead which, otherwise, would fold like wax.</ab>
<ab id=“p072v_b1d”>Some say the blackestlead is the best and the softest and flows the best. You recognize the goodness of it by rubbing it with your finger, which will blacken immediately.</ab>
<ab id=“p072v_b1e”>T he good alloy for the flow of lead and tin is [made] from one lb of lead, and one and a half lb of tin. It is solder which flows well that is good for casting, but it is rough.</ab>

p139r_c1c

<note id=” p139r_c1c”>Note that If you want to cast with cuttlefish bone, they cannot be too warm because that would burn the cuttefish. For this effect, try paper. It it becomes brown, it is enough, and it is good for casting, but if it blackens the paper, then it is too hot.</ab>



ASPECTS TO KEEP IN MIND WHEN MAKING FIELD NOTES