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WAX
‘Cire perdue’ or LOST WAX – the central importance of wax as a material to art casting is reflected in the very names used to describe the casting process.
Early written references to the use of wax in casting can be found in clay cuniform tablets excavated from the Babylonian city of Sippar. These are dated to 1789 BC, though there is evedence that wax was used for metal casting at least two thousand years before this date [ref}.
That wax materials were used for casting, not only in ancient Mesopotamia, but also in other quite disparate and unconnected cultures (such as in India and West Africa), indicates the universal appeal of wax within detailed casting processes. Whatever the distant origins of wax usage in casting, the material is no less important to today’s founder that it was to the metalsmiths of five thousand years ago.
Of course, wax is not the only product suitable for use in the casting process. Wood, paper, fat, various synthetic materials and a whole host of other alternatives can be used directly or indirectly in the casting process. Few these alternatives though, offer the exceptional working qualities of a good foundry or modelling wax. Wax is easily melted, it can be cast, moulded, modelled and blended to enhance the working properties demanded by the user.
This section of the website looks at the use of wax within the lost casting process, and in particular it’s connections with reproduction moulding, (for wax patternmaking), and later as peparation for the investment process by way of casting attachments.
TYPES OF WAX
The wax products available to today’s founders can be divided into roughly four basic groups of origin – animal/insect, vegetable, mineral, and synthetic. In practice, many foundry waxes are composed of more than just one type of wax, most workshop products are blended with two or more wax types plus a variety of non-wax additives. The process and purpose of wax blending is explained in greater detail later in this section of the site.
ANIMAL & INSECT WAXES > |
