The Bronze Age. Wax casting by students. School project.

Just before the Christmas holiday at the end of Term 2, I had been teaching my Year 3 class about the Stone Age and the Bronze Age.

Students find these topics really interesting, but their image of cavemen walking with dinosaurs and fighting off T-Rex is quickly corrected since this never actually happened. Grasping a time frame of 10s of millions of years is difficult at first. Creating a long 'prehistoric to modern day' timeline helps put things into perspective.

Once we move onto the bronze age, students are excited to learn how swords, spears and arrows are made. Already knowing how homo-erectus and homo sapiens made their tools in the Stone Age, this was naturally the next step.

Casting was relatively easy to understand, after all its still a common process used today. Unable to visit a real facility to see first hand each step of casting, we decided to to take the DIY route and bring it to the classroom.

Swapping bronze, a mix of tin and copper for wax, we could liquefy our product at much lower and safer temperatures- all within the classroom.

Students were given clay to mold 2 identical spearhead shapes taken from a paper template. As these 2 halves were fitted together and all edges sealed, a void was left inside in the shape of their spearhead.

The hot wax was poured in to an opening at the top, filling their mold. As the wax cooled and solidified, it formed their spearhead. As the teacher, I allowed the students to sit at a safe distance to watch the pouring. They were keen to inspect the molds as soon as they had cooled- and play with the drips of wax!

The clay was pealed and picked off leaving the wax mold. Students chose what felt best for them when trying to dig out the molds- Some used wooden lollipop sticks, the ends of pencils and fingers. Scissors were advised not to be used since they would dig in and scratch/damage the wax.

Once most of the clay had been peeled off, the students used old brushes and water to wash off and clean the spearheads. The cleaner the spearheads became, the dirtier their uniforms were!

Once the spearheads had been dried off from their bath, the students shaped them with the edges of scissors and metal rulers. This meant the students could scrape off any uneven edges or wax leaks and create a nice smooth surface- just like a real blacksmith would do when polishing his blades.

Luckily none of the casts broke when being opened. The students were able to shape their spearheads to the shape they wanted- we just didn't have any sticks for spears, so they were used as spear-daggers or dagger-spears!

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