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Author	Topic: spoon mold
middletom Posts: 467 Registered: May 2004	posted 11-06-2009 06:17 PM [01-2765] This may not pertain at all to silver, but a few years ago when I was doing a silver demonstration at the "Independence Museum" here in Exeter, NH, one of the personnel of the museum showed me an item they have which appeared to be a mold for making a spoon. It was made from soap stone (or something that looked and felt like soap stone), was in two halves, one half being the upper half of a spoon and the other being the under half. When the two were brought together one could imagine it creating a spoon if some substance were put in between the two halves. However, there was no way to introduce molten metal into the mold when closed as there were no sprue holes leading to the inside. The only way I could see it working would be if a cut out piece of soft clay was squeezed in between the two halves, making a clay spoon. Any suggestions as to what it is and how it was made to work? Did my description make any sense? middletom IP: Logged
Dale Posts: 2132 Registered: Nov 2002	posted 11-06-2009 06:50 PM I believe this is for very soft pewter which can be put into such an arrangement. Would not work with melted pewter, but a roughly spoon shaped bit of cooled pewter might work. IP: Logged
agphile Posts: 798 Registered: Apr 2008	posted 11-06-2009 07:25 PM I guess Dale is right to suggest the mould might have been used in effect to stamp out a shape in soft pewter, though I have only known of metal dies for pewter spoons up to now. However, there was once a use for stone spoon moulds. The ancient Romans cast their spoons with an interesting method. A master mould in two halves was carved in stone - marble in the excavated example I know of. This was used to make a lead model spoon which was in turn used to make clay moulds in which the spoon, normally of bronze, was cast. In the case of silver spoons I believe the clay mould was heated first to allow the molten metal to flow even into the thinnest parts before solidifying. I assume this system allowed the creation of a number of lead templates that could be continually renewed. I am not sure that this is relevant to the mould you saw which clearly couldn't have been used with molten lead, but I wonder whether another possibility is that it was used to press the shape into some soft material (wax?)that was then used in the same way as a model to cast from? P.S. Just realized I am using a different spelling for mould. That is just usage this side of the Atlantic, I am afraid. IP: Logged
agphile Posts: 798 Registered: Apr 2008	posted 11-08-2009 12:24 PM At the risk of becoming a bore I thought a might elaborate a little on Roman spoon making. This is the marble mold I referred to above. It was excavated at Augst (Switzerland). It was first thought to have been used to make wax models for subsequent casting by the lost wax technique. This is what made me wonder whether the mould Middletom saw could somehow have been used for a wax model. However, traces of lead together with other evidence led to the conclusion that the Augst mold was used for lead models (Riha and Stern, Roman Spoons from Augst and Kaiseraugst - German text). The best evidence I know for the use of clay moulds formed from a metal model and used to make the actual spoons comes from England. These clay molds were excavated at Castleford. More information about them and their use is at After The Fort & Vicus: Spoon making (3.1 meg PDF) And, as a bit more evidence, this Roman spoon fragment from my collection is a bowl that went wrong in casting but somehow failed to be recycled. It is reputed to have been found in the Gloucester area about 45 years ago. Sorry if this takes us a bit off topic but it is just possible that something in all this may throw light on the mold that started this thread. IP: Logged
swarter Moderator Posts: 2920 Registered: May 2003	posted 11-08-2009 12:51 PM quote: Sorry if this takes us a bit off topic but it is just possible that something in all this may throw light on the mould that started this thread. Not at all off-topic -- pertinent and very interesting. Thanks for posting them. IP: Logged
middletom Posts: 467 Registered: May 2004	posted 11-08-2009 09:39 PM Thank you so much, Agphile, for that information and those pictures. It is all very interesting and has inspired me to go to the museum and ask to see the mold again. Also, Agphile, you can't assume that I know how to spell correctly. Yours may the correct form of the word. If I can find out more about that piece at the museum, I'll put it into this thread. middletom IP: Logged
agphile Posts: 798 Registered: Apr 2008	posted 11-09-2009 09:16 AM Thanks for your kind words Middletom. Of course, your first thought about clay may actually be the right answer. Ceramic ladles were certainly made in the 18th and 19th centuries. If a ladle, why not a spoon, perhaps as a serving piece, suitably decorated before firing to accompany a bowl or dish? As for spelling, if I see an American using a simpler and more logical version than we do I take it for granted that this is simply a reform we have yet to follow. However, it may not be long before we are all using the even simpler, but to me often incomprehensible, style introduced with texting. [This message has been edited by agphile (edited 11-09-2009).] IP: Logged
agphile Posts: 798 Registered: Apr 2008	posted 11-09-2009 12:31 PM And a PS to the above. If you do get to see the mould again, a clue to its use might come from the gauge of the spoon shape it would create. I imagine a ceramic spoon would need to be noticeably thicker than a pewter or silver one. IP: Logged

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