Casting the Swordfish Harpooner

Here are some pictures I took at the ART Research foundry , in Lancaster, PA of the casting of the Swordfish Harpooner sculpture.

this is a sand mold of the right front side of the Swordfish.


This is a raw cast of part of the Swordfish after it is taken from the sand mold

The "rods" along the back edge are formed in vent holes drilled in the sand mold when the the melted bronze in poured into the mold.  The "flashing" along the front edge is where the liquid bronze leaks between the two halves of the sand mold.

    After the excess bronze is cut off and the pieces are sandblasted to clean them they are ready to be put together.

Above you can see the pieces of the Swordfish ready to reassemble.  The Harpooner, without his arms, is lying in the background.





 After pouring, as the bronze cools in  the molds after pouring it shrinks and bends.  It is a lot of hard work to get the two cast halves of the Harpooner to fit back together.  As they force the pieces together they "tack" it to hold it in the right position.  Then the seams are welded.   After that  the piece is  "chased" so the original texture is recreated and you can no longer see where the pieces were put together.


Here is the finished piece, ready for the patina.






Here they are doing the patina.  The heat from the torches causes the patina chemicals to bond with the bronze to create the color of the patina.

 

The ART Research Foundry did a great job.  Here is the link to their web page:

-- 
Jay Lagemann

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