What is the "lost wax method"?

What a strange name this is!  Truth is stranger than fiction, at least in this case it is.

Leonardo Da Vinci built a bronze horse (in about the year 1497) using this method.  Sadly, he did was unable to complete it.  Nonetheless, you've really got to see it and learn how it was built.  I do not use the word awesome often, but this really is awesome!  Visit the following link and remember to return here with your back button afterwards: The Da Vinci Horse

The "lost wax" method is a specific technique of investment casting.  For centuries articles of jewelry have been made by a technique with this name.   This method is basically done by taking a wax or plastic model and encasing it in a plaster like material called investment.  This investment is then heated in an oven to high temperature and the model melts away and evaporates.  This is known as the burnout cycle. Once the model is eliminated, metal is melted and "cast" into the cavity where the model once was (hence the name "lost wax"). The metal can be injected into the mold by a number of different techniques (steam, vacuum, centrifugal force, etc.)  This is the time-proven method that is used by the jewelers creating unique Celtic rings, pendants, bracelets and other handcrafted unique Celtic jewelry items. 

In addition to using the "Lost Wax Method" for making jewelry and bronze horses it has been used extensively for making cannons and many other objects large and small. 

Hey, where did the wax go?  It was vaporized and then replaced by a cannon or a horse or maybe a ring.  See the biggest cannon in the world here: Biggest Cannon ever cast.

You can view photographs and learn more about the "Lost Wax Method" by visiting the contributor's web site here:  MyCelticRings.Com, or you can go directly to the Lost Wax page there

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