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Haren flat axe
Original
| Found: Haren, Noord-Brabant, Netherlands
Age: Early bronze age The Haren axe is an Irish axe, or based on one. On the surface it's got decorative stripes hammered in, which is typical for Irish axes. >>> more information |
Model
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The model to make the mould is made from clay and sand. The original axe was missing the back. This I had to reconstruct using similar axes for comparisson. |
Mould
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Material: clay & sand
The mould is made from clay and sand, and well fired. If the original really is made in Ireland, the chance is great that it was cast in a stone mould. |
Casting result
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Unfortunately there's a charcoal inclusion. But aside from that, it's a pretty good quality cast. |
Casting result 2
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A second cast in the same mould gave a better result. The mould had a bit of damage, so this will require a bit more work finish it. |
Finished axe
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As the cast wasn't perfect and there was a lot of finishing work, I decided to safe time and do the grinding with modern tools. I also attempted to create the low flanges as on the original by hammering in the sides. This didn't work, as the bronze next to the edge started to flake off. So I suspect that the flanges on this one were cast, not created after casting. The decoration I applied using a (workhardened) bronze pin and hammerstone. This worked very well, as I only needed to re-grind the point three times. |