In other news… Email sent to the clerk/secretary’s of the various orders.

“Greetings unto the Councils of Lochac’s Peerages,

With the current Known World discussions on a possible Fourth Peerage I though I would pose a few questions to our Kingdoms current peerage councils in order to further cement my opinion on the matter and possibly provide a clearer understanding of the situation for all of Lochac.

The following questions are posed to the respective Councils as a request for an official unified council response, not the individual opinions of various members.

Does the council currently consider the efforts of Archers (both Combat and Target), Fencers, Siege Engineers, Equestrian and other such participants of various fringe activities to be worthy of their respective peerage (if earned, of course)?
Does the council currently have anyone in their sights who they believe may be worthy of their peerage based on the above activities (Not asking for detail, just whether or not it’s possible)?
Does the council ever receive nominations for their respective peerage based on the above activities?
And finally… What is the councils official position on nominations for their respective peerage based on the above activities?

I propose to publish these questions and their answers publicly for the benefit of all of Lochac as I feel that having a public unified response from each of the councils will help everyone understand where things stand, not just the individual opinions of various members.

I look forward to your responses.

Sveinn inn kyrri Grimsson.
Annoying Pleb of Lochac. ”

Though the Chiv email address on their website did bounce.

http://www.northernsmelters.com.au/index.html – One of 2 smelters in Australia. 20Kg minimum, though may be willing to sell less if you ask.
http://www.aemetal.com.au/Webstore/p-44-pewter-casting-sticks.aspx – Smaller sticks from the above supplier.
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Pewter-Alloy-1-Lb-Ingot-/170747190637?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_2&hash=item27c1535d6d – Decent price, but shipping would be bloody expensive.

And… http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/130644466706?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649 – If you are after even smaller quantities. This is my stock that I’m selling.

Also do you have any advice for this sort of thing in AU, I live in Mount Isa QLD,

Permanent structures or the basis thereof would be robust enough to withstand having the cattle scratch themselves on them. Areas to be camped in would have cattle taken off them for a suitable period beforehand to avoid wet manure. On site storage would be available in sheds near to the residence. A second residence (move in a weatherboard house) or permanent cabin style accommodation (in a floored shed, even) would be available for people to stay in while working on the event sites or in the case that a hurricane blows an event to kingdom come.

Long term plans for the property would have to be based around financial viability. If the camping ventures are more profitable, sink more into developing that side of things. If that is not profitable, intensify the farming and just use the site for occasional use by select groups, maybe those who have a vested interest. Odds are that if neither the camping or farming can keep the property viable, the farm will have to be sold — as a farm.

Meanwhile, have you seen: http://www.thecourier.com.au/news/local/news/general/kryal-castle-up-for-sale-at-private-auction/1885995.aspx ?

Kryal Castle is up for auction *aaaaagain* They want ten million for it. Ha! I bet it will be passed in *aaaaagain*.

I believe the pockmarks you are seeing are the result of a slight out-gassing of the mould. This occurs in two situations, either too much moisture in the mould, or the mould material itself not being able to withstand the heat of the pewter. I have also seen this result, and I have also seen it in soapstone on humid days, when the soapstone just seems to instantly soak up moisture in the air. I suspect that with your Sikaflex, there is an element of the mould that has either not cured completely, or just cannot take the temp and is melting or vaporising or even just the heat is causing a chemical reaction that is causing it to create a small amount of gas, this then forms the flat bubbled look.

I suspect that the best material for doing a press mould would be plain old potters clay and have been meaning to get some for ages. Clay used to be used not only for push moulds, but also for lost wax. The clay was pressed into the details building up a very rough mould around a wax object, then that was left to dry. Once dry it was placed in the fire to burn out the wax and after that was used to cast from. I believe there is a small amount of shrinkage with clay… something like 5%? But I can’t really remember back to my art days at school.

As for your other experiments I look forward to hearing your results, though I do have some suspicions of how some of them will turn out. I believe the Das one will work, but will start cracking after 5-10 castings, it will also start burning, which will make the inside of the mould loose detail as it becomes charcoal. I believe the Fimo mould won’t take the heat at all, and will start melting from the inside out, probably with a lot of bubbling burning plastic. I know… I sound negative, but I’m more than happy to be proven wrong and stress that those opinions are only my own opinions and they have no basis in experimentation.

The plaster will depend on how many tokens you are casting, and the mass of the pewter going into the mould. If you are pouring small tokens with a small button, then I suspect you will get more tokens, though Plaster is hard to get to pour correctly. It seems to resist the molten pewter not allowing details unless the cast is pressurised. In fact pressurisation or increasing gravity in a centrifuge seems to be the answer to alot of casting frustration, and is something I have turned my mind to constructing. However I diverge… Plaster seems to not be able to take the stresses of the heating and cooling cycle of pouring pewter. I have yet to work out whether this is simply because plaster seems to be a good insulator and therefore expands more where the heat is than a small distance away where the heat has not reached. This in turn causes uneven stresses in the mould itself and over time causes the mould to crumble. I suspect that the best way to use plaster as a mould is to use it in parts of the mould that do not really matter that much, such as creating a two part pouring button for a one sided soapstone mould, where it doesn’t matter that the plaster crumbles after 10-20 pours, because it’s easy enough to make a second pouring button, and the face of the token is in soapstone and won’t change.

I am so tempted to construct a centrifuge/spin casting machine so that I don’t have to ever do gravity casting ever again. That way I could also cast Festival type numbers without too much problem.

You CAN have a mould too hot. If it’s hot enough to prevent the pewter cooling down fast enough then there can be results. As I just found for myself whilst testing another medium for similar capabilities. It wasn’t so much the medium but the effect it had on the metal’s cooling abilities. It needs to be hot enough to encourage flow but not so hot that it prevents reasonably quick cooling to retain image detail.

My experiments thus far -

So I poured pewter into a silicon rubber mould made of Sikaflex, the plumbing gunk. The moulds were a few years old but I can’t imagine these moulds deteriorating much at all and they looked good to start with. I’ve poured nice wax models from these in the past so I know the mould produces good results with the right filler.

Found that the silicon slowed down the rate of cooling to a destructive point. The surface of the metal had bumps all over it much like the moon’s face. The button was liquid for aaaages. I tried pouring at *just* melted temp and the bumps smoothed but were still present. The inside of the mould became sticky and I believe was starting to ‘meld’ with the pewter after only 1 pour!

I have a laser engraved disk of nylon I had made elsewhere. It has fine lettering and detail on it. This is my test piece as there’s a mistake on it. So I’m subjecting it to a series of tests. First I pressed it into plasticine to see what it would look like in reverse as this commission is for a seal.

Next I pressed it into Das Terracotta, an air drying clay. It didn’t give a good image in the clay as it seems to be made from a fine papier mache mixed with something resinous. The paper fibres were large enough to destroy the fine impression of the image. It’s dry now and I’m still going to pour some pewter in it, to see what happens. It may not be good for fine detail but it could be good for larger detail or simpler shapes like drinking cups perhaps?

After cutting the nylon model in half (to keep one half in it’s original state), I’ve pressed it into Fimo polymer clay, and baked it. Left it in the oven overnight so need to look at it and see if the fine details have sagged. Well the image has shrunk a little. 1.5mm over an original 40mm diameter. The wording is now too fine. But I’ll pour pewter into both the Das and Fimo moulds tomorrow night to see how they hold up.

The plaster might work for me on another project to make 10 prize tokens. Will it hold up to that quantity do you think? I was going to carve them out of soapstone but, as soapstone is harder to get in a fine grade, I’m looking for alternatives that aren’t as expensive as a vulcanising rubber mould set up. If i use a medium temp plaster mould, with a large sprue opening, I could be prepared for the non-events that can just melted later on anyway.

If you are a Captain of Archers for one of Lochac’s local groups, please check out: http://forum.lochac.net/viewtopic.php?f=68&t=1122 and possibly let us know your own results. Sharing this information may mean that we have enough people willing to start a specific Period Archery sub-group who can work together to help others get into period archery in Lochac.