Original
 

Found: Deurne, Netherlands Age: 1100-800 BC This set of woodworking tools was found in Deurne, and consists of a wide and a narrow chisel and a gouge. A set of tools as this must have enabled the owner to make very refined woodwork. As these kind of tools were vary rare and valuable, the owner would have probably made fine quality woordwork to be traded. A possible product could have been sword hilts and scabbards, or also finely finished wooden boxes, wooden bowls etc.

Model
 

The model to make the mould was made from wood, using a bronze knife. The stepped ends are based on wooden models from Tobermore, Co. Derry, Ierland. Those models, for example of spearpoints, also had these stepped ends to make the holes in the mould for inserting the cores.

Mould
 

Earlier attempts to make these tools failed, as the tools were to small and thinwalled for me to be able to get them filled. As I worked with separate mould pieces, to be bound together before casting, I couldn't preheat them much. This time I wrapped a layer of clay/sand/horsedung mix around it before firing, to make the mould a single piece. This made it easy to preheat the mould before casting, so that the bronze could more easily flow through the small openings.

Casting result
 

The new method to hold the mould together, and preheat it to redhot seems to work. I found that it was necessary not just to have the bronze liquid though, but well above melting point to make the bronze fluid enough to flow in all the small openings.

Finished gouge
 

The gouge has been ground on stone and the edge has been hardened by hammering. For the haft I used ash. I shaped it using my bronze knife, and ground it smooth using sand. The haft is attached using resin.