26 March

After a short flight to Gatwick, and a long journey by train I arrived in Liskeard where Neil Burridge was waiting for me at the trainstation. We drove towards the hotel in Five Lanes, but first took a detour to see the triple stone circles at Minions (no photos on this side). It was already getting dark, which gave a nice atmosphere to the place. What clearly could be seen was the traces of ages of tinstreaming in the landscape. Every corner of the landscape where the tin ore could be found was marked by traces of digging in the ground. After that we went to the hotel, where Neil dropped me off, and I got a good nights rest after a long day. The hotel is a really nice place, and definately well priced.
 

27 March

Neil arrived for breakfast, and after a good traditional brittish breakfast we went to Trewortha farm. After a meandering narrow road we arrived at the Bodmin Moore, which was like entering a totally different world. Due to the unfavorable conditions there for farming, the landscape has barely changed over the last few thousands of years, and it's like passing through a time portal. The photos I took don't do it any justice, as they don't capture the amazing atmosphere of the place. Just imagine no sound of cars, but only sound of the a breeze, in a landscape that has visual marks of its ancient inhabitants everywhere. There are the granite foundations of bronze age roundhouses, cairns, burial mounds, and many standing stones which could mark ancient burials. Right in the middle are the three reconstructions of roundhouses, as the original ones would have looked like.

After a short tour over the terrain we went into one of the farms, and the course started. First a swordshape was chosen, for which the moulds would be made. The moulds are made in a lightweight heat resistant material, which is easy to sand and carve into shape. After the shapes were carved into the material, the surface was finished by filling in the holes and and assembling the two halves, with the addition of the casting feed and air vents. In the mean time the crucible was placed in the furnace, the furnace filled with charcoal and the charcoal fired. To my surprise the amount of heat produced was already enough to reach a temperature of 975ºC, without any bellowing, nearly hot enough to melt the bronze. After the mould was placed in position (at an angle of 45º), we started bellowing to bring up the temperature of the furnace to the 1200ºC+, required for casting. The bellowing takes much less work then would be expected. Gently feeding air is enough to bring the temperature to the required level, and keep it there until enough time has passed for the bronze to melt and heat up further. Then came the big moment to take out the crucible from the furnace and cast the sword. Neil picked up the yellow hot crucible from the furnace, caried it over to the pooring handle and together we casted the bronze into the mould. To even further increase the tension, a leak appeared and the bronze left the mould from the side. We kept casting, hoping that the mould would have filled sufficiently. The sword was left in the mould to cool down (due to brittleness of bronze at hot temperatures it would damage when opening the mould at that temperature). After the glow that could be seen through the side had disappeared, the mould was taken outside. Now came the moment to see if see whether we had success or total failure! But the gods were with us, and from the mould appeared a complete sword. My first experience with bronze casting was a success!

After a most succesfull day we headed to the hotel, and talked about the days events while consuming a great diner and pint of ale.
 

28 March

After I had breakfast, Neil arrived and we went back to the Threwortha farm.Upon arrival I took some photos of the bronze age roundhouses. An interesting note is that the last build roundhouse is build without any strings (whether in the form of rope, leather, willow etc.), which makes it the only one of its kind in the UK. The roof gets its rigidity by spliced branches of hazel, which are vertically woven between the circumferential bars (see image 03280021.jpg). The whole roof is kept in place by gravity, although some pins have been placed under the circumferential bars, just for extra security to prevent them from sliding down. I also took some photo's of some of Neil's own casts, a looped palstave axe, a mould for casting one and a socketed axe. Both axes still have the feeds attached, from which you can usually see traces on the original bronze age ones. The mould for casting the looped palstave is made of a mix of clay, fresh cowdung and sand, wrapped around a wax model of the axe. The rough surface on the casted palstave is a result of the cowdung burned out of the mould after firing it.

Today we were going to caste a rapier blade. The mould is one Neil made before, which he uses for all his courses for casting rapiers. It's a stone mould, similar to what would have been used in the bronze age. The only difference is that it's from a heat resistant ceramic material, which is used to reduce the risk of the mould breaking during the casting (due to thermal stresses). This time I did the whole process myself, under his guidance. I fired up the furnace, and after letting it burn on its own for some time, further increased the temperature to the required 1200ºC+. Then came the moment to pick the crucible out of the furnace. This must have been the my most nervous moment, holding a incredibly hold crucible and trying not to let it drop! Neil took off the lid from the crucible, which for some reason had welded itself to the crucible. But after a few hits it came loose, and I quickly casted the bronze into the mould. After it cooled down a bit, Neil opened the mould, and a beautiful, still slightly glowing rapier appeared! When the glow had disappeared, the (still amazingly incredibly hot!) rapier was picked up, taken outside and cooled with a splash of water.

It was still early, so we went out for a walk through the field. The weather had deteriorated, but under a plastic bag I could still make a lot of photos of the bronze age traces we encountered. On the way back to the farms, we got some sand and cowdung, for practicing making the material for lost wax moulds. Back at the farm, it was time to get my hands dirty! In a big bowl the sand, dung and powdered clay went, and I mixed it to a nice sticky smelly goo:)

Still there was time left, so we went by car to visit some stonecircles. The first we visited (can't remember the location), was a moderately sized circle (photos 03280078, 03280080 and 03280081), which was located on a rather flat and empty field, which looked mysterious in the fog. After a long drive all the way around the moore, we went to see a stone circle located near the Stanton Works (china clay). That circle was huge! It was located on top of a hill edge, overlooking the surrounding area, with traces of a settlement on a counterfacing slope (barely visible due to the weather), and surrounded by several other features (burials/ hut circle?). This one is definately worth a visit, especially as it's far away from mass tourism. Where else can you visit such a great monument without other people in the neighbourhood, and still have the original landscape intact (aside from the china clay works, though that's not too distracting). We also had a walk to another circle about a kilometer further. That one was in not such a good state, and hard to recognize as circle (no photos here).

We went back to the hotel, had another good meal and talked about tons of stuff under the enjoyment of a few pints.
 

29 March

Time to go home. I can't believe it's only been a few days, having done so much! It's been a great experience, and I can definately recommend it to anyone with an interest with interest in bronze casting, seeing traces of prehistoric life and/or to enjoy the incredible and unique landscape! Cheers to Neil Burridge for a great experience and all the help in preparation of and during my stay!
 

Neil Burridge's site: http://www.bronze-age-craft.com/