">Bronze Casting - Breaking the Shell

All right, you've made your wax model, mounted in on the cup, made the shell, and burned out the wax. Then you proceed to cast your bronze.

So once the bronze is cast and cooled down cooled (although even after 24 hours the shells can still be hot), you take a hammer and knock off the shell - but carefully so you don't hurt the metal surface. You then knock off shell that adheres to the surface with metal chisels but again taking care so not to punch into the metal. Once the shell is removed you end up with a rough looking sculpture with the cup, sprue, and vent still attached as you see here. You then cut off the spure and vent and the grind down the edges left from the cutting.

As you see you can get most of the shell off with the hammer and chisels, to get the last bits and pieces off the surface, you have to go to sandblasting. The results of that process - again using proper equipment, training, and safety precautions - is on the next page.