I spent almost an entire month last spring doing some casting projects. Two of them were machinist's hammers and two were to make some hardware for a sheath. I made a persian knife and wanted the wood sheath to be as authentic looking as possible. A good reason to cast is to get a very old look with the oxides and mould marks visible. You can always put a patina on a piece of hardware to make it look old but it still will not look like you took it from a museum.

That is one of two reasons I wanted to jump into casting. The second reason was to make the machinist's hammers I would have had to buy a very expensive chunk of brass, bronze and copper only to use a small piece for each hammer. I had alot of brass, copper and bronze scraps and it did not make sense to not use the scraps.

If anyone has priced copper recentley you can certainly see that casting scraps is far less expensive then buying it right now. It has gone up over 500% in the last few years.

The casting projects links below will show how I did them for very little money. Most knifemakers allready have a forge of some type so to cast all you need is an $18 crucible and some know how. I have allready posted these on "The outpost" and "Primal fires" forums before but now we have a casting forum.

Cast bronze hammer head.
http://groups.msn.com/Brentscustomknives/castbronzehammerheadproject.msnw?action=ShowPhoto&PhotoID=192

Cast copper hammer head.
http://groups.msn.com/Brentscustomknives/coppermachinisthammercasting.msnw?action=ShowPhoto&PhotoID=193

Cast silver and brass sheath hardware.
http://groups.msn.com/Brentscustomknives/graphiteringmould.msnw?action=ShowPhoto&PhotoID=239

Good info Brent! What's a good source for the graphite block you used? For the silver casting, is there any particular good source for the silver?

Half of my graphite stock came from various Ebay vendors selling drop pieces and scrap that is too small for thier uses but great for us casters. Some pieces I have bought from The Graphite Store. They have a great selection and no minimum order. I can't speak for everyone by I personally get really peeved at businesses that only want huge orders. They basically give us knifemakers "the finger" because all we may want is a $10-$20 componet for a knife we want to make. It is a very snotty business model to have and ultimately they will screw themselves.

I have been a small business owner for 30 years and the most valued customer is the one that makes small orders over and over again for years on end. I will take them any day over that one big order that chewed your price down and then you never see them again. I have had several opportunities to get some poetic justice on those pompous snot nosed companies, let me tell you it is great feeling!

Someday when I have the time I will post how I really feel about them.:D

Here is the Graphite Stores link.

http://www.graphitestore.com/items_list.asp/action/prod/prd_id/71/cat_id/22

For making moulds you do not need the EDM or semi-conductor grade graphite, just the plain old regular graphite works great. Always check Ebay first, I have got some incredible deals on scraps. On one order the guy doubled it just to get rid of all of the excess he had. He emailed me and asked if I was willing to pay another $5 he would double the order, he just needed the shipping covered.

As for the silver I just used some scrap 99.99 that I had from a previous business. It is pretty spendy to go out and buy it new. Casting grain is a good source for it since it is allready in small uniform grains and melts faster. Sterling silver casting grain is a bit cheaper and won't tarnish as fast. It is also a bit stronger since it is alloyed with copper and other stronger metals.

My wife ran across a rock and gem store that has several bags of copper ore for a couple bucks a bag. I may have to try copper refinning just for the experience. Heck with copper as expensive as it is I may actually save some money by refinning it myself.