Cast Iron Pot: a Kettle Moulded in Loam, Bottom Up (Bolland, The Iron-Founder, 1892)

Set the core on a foundation plate strong enough to lift it without springing: a plain plate at least 3 in thick, or a ribbed one 2 in thick. Build the core of bricks in open, coarse mud, bricks well apart so air passes, with half-bricks crossing the joints on the top course and a tie-course here and there. Scrape the joints, rub on soft loam and sweep it to shape as you go round; the first sweep also strikes the flange, the guide and the seat for the cope ring. Finish with a skimming coat of the same loam sifted fine. Ours: sand and clay for the loam. Not given: the loam mix, the size.

When the loam is hard enough, change to the thickness sweep. Ram fine-sifted old sand at green-sand temper on by hand from the bottom up, sweeping carefully, dampen and slick it, leaving it about 1/16 in clear of the sweep, and press the flange corner sharp with the trowel. Have all the skinning loam ready first; it must be done in one pass. When it is hard, oil it all over and throw on parting sand. Ours: linseed oil.

Set on the cope ring and build the cope over the thickness, best with building rings and packing so it can be bound down under a cross at once. Bed plates on the sand and bind them down with the cross or binders. Put the riser at the top and enough 3/4 in runners round it, in a circle about 30 in across, to fill the mould quickly. The sand thickness stands for the metal. Not given in these pages: lifting the cope to take the thickness off before closing.

Cut two gutters from the centre of the pit to the outside, sloping gently to the centre, and just before casting pour a little iron down to warm the air so the core gas draws off. Do not fill the trench with shavings and wood, which flash and crack the core. Fill the riser basin with soft straw or hay held down by a dry brick, so gas escapes but no rush of air damages the crown. Pour the iron through the runners. Ours: pig iron melted in a cupola.