Index of /Content/

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	[Parent Directory]	-	Sat May 23 11:18:18 2009
	Constitution Island Event	-	Mon Aug 31 21:05:11 2009
	I did not enjoy this event one bit, plus there are no pictures to boot. It rained late Friday and some on Saturday preventing us from using the horses. We still showed up, but were not able to do our program due to the damp ground. Thankfully “MJ” and Mark SR. represented us at the “timeline” presentation so none of the mounted (or rest of the unit) group had show up on Saturday. The fact that I was sick on Friday/Saturday didn’t exactly help, so I was more than grateful when it was too wet to bring the horses out, though that meant they had to spend the day in the trailer. While we did offload and graze them for a bit at an abandoned shopping center in the morning and later in the evening on the hotel lawn when the weather cleared again, it was still not enough, and I knew Orion was going to have issues on Sunday. On Sunday the weather improved a bit, but it was yet another hot summer day with high humidity. Getting to and from the island meant riding on a one lane causeway while trying to time avoiding the shuttle bus traveling at irregular intervals on the same single track road. To top it off, Orion was every bit the problem I expected once we got to the island, and had to be removed from the formation when the battle started. It was expected, given the size of the field we had to preform in (the venue was small), but still disappointing, and proof that while Orion has made great improvements in being around other people, he still has a long way to go before he is comfortable around people outside the mounted group. Even more so for people outside the unit, like the 5th New York - our partners in this event. All in all, I’d have to say that while we did the best we could under the circumstances, I would prefer not to do that even again next year. Had the weather been better and Orion better behaved, my experience would probably have been more positive. Still, the crowd seemed to enjoy the presentation and battle afterwords on Sunday, so I guess that is all that counts. Filed under: Rev War. No comments.
	Third pouring	-	Mon Aug 24 20:52:01 2009
	Melting metal for the third pouring session. For some reason, melting ingots you previously made yourself is rather satisfying. Last Saturday, I decided to try to pour more metal, but this time I wanted to test just how many pours you could get from a mold before it noticeably degraded. Since the cob coins were rather popular at work, and already had 10 pours on that section of the mold already, I decided to make more cobs until I either ran out of pewter, the molds started to visibly degrade, or the flashing became a major problem to clean. In the end, it turned out to be the lack of lighting that ended the pouring that day rather than any of the previously listed conditions, though the flashing had seemed become a noticeable problem after the 20th cumulative pour. After a total of 25 pours I would say that the flashing problem officially became “more of a problem that it was worth” even though the detail of the coin was still quite good and using a series of hand files and Brillo pads to remove the excess metal and clean the coins was taking about 5 minutes each at that point. I admit that does not sound like much time, but when you are thinking about making 100 coins each run, that small amount of time eventually adds up. Here's a few examples of coins that were made in the third pouring - about a 1/2 pound of cobs, ecus, and sols plus a one pence coin from my own collection (need to copper plate that last one). Still, while the main objective that day was to see how many pours could be done with a plaster mold, I did more than one mold available of use and decided to pour more a few more French Ecus (and a few Sols) while waiting for the cobs pourings to solidify to see if a broken mold could still be used after being patched. The results were not that good, though I did manage to get a few coins that day, though the amount of effort in cleaning them was clearly in the “not worth it” category. So, in summary, my advice to you is that once a mold breaks, make a new one rather than repairing it. Also, when you make a plaster mold, plan on only getting about 25 pours before the work involved in cleaning the pieces you are casting starts to noticeably increase. Filed under: Coin, Pewter Casting. No comments.
	Dobbs Ferry Event	-	Mon Aug 17 09:05:08 2009
	Trying to stay cool at Dobbs Ferry Another event done - and man this was a HOT one. The humidity was near 100% and the temperature actually did hit 100! To say that this was not a fun day to be dressed in 3 layers of clothing - including a coat - while working on a horse is a bit of an understatement. Filed under: Rev War. No comments.
	Second Casting Attempt	-	Sun Aug 16 20:26:49 2009
	A copy of a French ecu made in a mold that broke during casting. This casting was something I decided to do at the last moment before the Dobbs Ferry event, so once again, no great results were expected. Besides, I’m running low on pewter and need to either find more or finally break down and order a few pounds online. Mostly this casting attempt was about trying to see how small I could make the sprue and vent channels to minimize the amount of work required to clean the coins up later. While that part provided a lot of useful information, flaws in the mold creation quickly became apparent to the point that one broke and most will need to be redone due to how most of the coins shifted position too close to the edges of the mold when the plaster was poured. This is disappointing news given that it is taking about two weeks for the molds to fully dry in this humidity. Last of the 8 reale cobs left from the second casting. Still, while there were a number of problems with the molds and some temperature issues with the charcoal (I was using a new batch), some usable coins were created out of this small run and were quickly snapped up by people in the group and at work following my progress so far. The unfortunate part was that I forgot to get pictures of the few finished coins that I made. Filed under: Coin, Pewter Casting. No comments.
	D18072962A	-	Tue Aug 11 20:12:46 2009
	Where Is George banknote D18072962A I got another Where is George note today ($1, serial number D18072962A), so I thought I’d post a picture in case anyone was interested. It seems this one has not seen a lot of activity, or at least very few people bothered to log the progress of the banknote from Philly to Groton (CT). Whenever I get one of these notes I like to mark it in some way and then pass it along, so since I happened to have fingernail clippers in front of me, I snipped off the upper left edge of the note rather than just drawing the usual smiley face, stick figure, etc. Overall the bill is looking good for a 2001 series, but it has a heavy crease vertically down the center, with smaller creases running horizontal across the bill. The top edge is curled a bit towards the center. As mentioned previously, the rounded upper left corner is my doing, and the missing bit can be seen in the picture above. Filed under: Banknote. No comments.
	More Coin Molds In Progress	-	Sat Aug 08 09:36:51 2009
	Coin molds in various stages of progress. After getting more plaster, I started making more coin molds. In a few more days I should be able to start turning out large amounts of coins. I suspect that I’m going to need to head back to the local thrift shops and try to find more pewter items to melt down or just break down and order some online. Filed under: Coin, Pewter Casting. No comments.
	Copper Plating	-	Fri Aug 07 21:50:00 2009
	One problem with casting Rev War era coins is that many of the ones that were in common use were made of copper or silver. The “silver” ones are easy to make using pewter because the metal looks about the same. The copper ones, however, are a bit more of a problem - or were a problem until I ran across this video… This is nice in that it doesn’t involve any dangerous arsenic-based solutions like gold and silver electroplating processes do. A more complicated setup for copper coating lead bullets can be found here. I do believe my copper coin problem may be solved. Filed under: Coin, Online, Pewter Casting. No comments.