Metalcasting At Higher Qualities, Expanding Pottery

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Lexx416
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Metalcasting At Higher Qualities, Expanding Pottery

Post by Lexx416 »

So, in some research on alloys in general, I stumbled upon the concept of Lost Wax Casting as a means to produce very detailed and intricate work. I think adding Lost Wax Casting as part of the metalcasting process would be a great way to obtain higher quality (with a cap) gear from casting.

Lost Wax casting requires someone to create a wax model or replica of something. Next, that replica has a mold made of it from clay - this mold is then fired in a kiln, to harden the mold and burn away the wax model. Lost Wax Casting allows for much more fine, detailed work, including jewelry, and I think that would translate well to improving the quality of cast items.

I think that the creation of a Lost Wax Cast should fall under pottery. I would set that recipe at somewhere starting at 500, and I would make it so that at best someone with pottery could at 500 could make items of Fine Quality, with a maximum cap at +2 for the most skilled potters. In order to maintain the relevance of metalworking (and other skills that produce objects with MANY steps), I would make it so that you must have an item of high quality to make a copy of in wax, and the process of manually translating the details of that object into wax (and then clay) causes the item quality to decrease 1-2 steps. Ex: If you managed to get your hands on a Legendary Quality knife blade, you could make a Lost Wax Cast of it to produce a mold, but the maximum quality of the item you produce with casting would drop to Superior. The molds produce from Lost Wax Casts should degrade at a faster rate than normal molds when mold durability is added in, as well.

I think the process should go something this....
1.) Obtain an item of Superior or greater quality
2.) Create a replicate of that item with beeswax
3.) Create a mold of that item with beeswax.
4.) Fire the mold in a kiln

Now you have a mold capable of reproducing an item of Fine quality, with much more limited uses compared to the uses one could get out of a non-quality producing mold.
"You hear the Woses, the Wild Men of the Woods... Remnants of an older time they be, living few and secretly, wild and wary as beasts."
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