I am a professional glass caster and could give plenty of pointers on both sand and kiln casting since I have the unique opportunity to do both on a daily basis. The axe head would have done better being entirely kiln cast, or at least ramped again post hot pour to fill out the details, but co2 sand is not ideal for that. As you noticed with plaster molds they have cracking issues, plastere isn't refractory enough on its own which is why we use it in combination with equal parts silica flour. If you want more detailed info feel free to reach out and I can provide plenty of info from the PDF's I have collected and made for students and colleagues.
I think at this point this dude does it on purpose tbh, but my gripe is he spends money, time and effort, why not do it properly, most of his projects turns out to be a disaster of some sort, except where the woodworker dude is involved. But I still watch this channel, and maybe they know that people like to see Andy struggle.
It is an important piece of technology, and making one from scratch is not too difficult. Plus, he can do a second video and make a modern electric one with modern materials.
hell, he might be able to piece together some working parts from all the defunked ones he has unless he tosses them out immediately apon literal meltdown
as someone who did a 4 year apprenticeship to become a molder i will tell you a few things. add vents and risers to your thinner parts of ur mold. Yes it will mean felting after but the risers will draw the metal to the thinner parts. also for a think mold like that i would prob do a 2 box flat back mold with vents and risers on the flat side to hide them and also i would have the mold flat not vertical
That was what I was thinking. It seems plausible to cast obsidian in order to get it to a close shape to what's needed, then knap it to a razor edge. I'm not sure if the casting would affect the ability of the obsidian to fracture sharply.
Might want to save up and buy some purpose built equipment. And some classes on casting techniques. i.e. your manufactured obsidian could probably be cast flat on an open mold, torch heated to slow the cooling process (simulating the slow cooling process of natural obsidian), while moulding the flat side with tools to get the flat side textured. Similar to modern glass sculpting techniques. But where the fun in not burning out a half dozen kilns and overburdening the local electricity grid with wattage it was likely never meant to sustain?
He isn't trying to do things well or properly. He is trying to do it on a budget basis with limited equipment as to "learn" what it is to make in a not so modern time... he explains it better in earlier videos..
I want to point out that it IS in fact possible to make large, singular pieces of obsidian blades with fine details and complicated shapes, but it's not done by casting, but by extremely intricate and precise knapping. If you look up "obsidian eccentric" or "eccentric flint", you can see a ton of examples of large pieces of flint and obsidian shaped into things like the faces of kings, snakes, etc by various Mesoamerican civilizations, mostly the Maya, but also the Teotihuacano (another civilization from the same time period as the Maya at their height, though in Central Mexico like the later Toltec and Aztec rather then the Yucatan like the Maya: At it's height, the city of Teotihuacan covered 60 square kilometers, larger then Rome, had a sewage system; and had hundreds of thousands of inhabitants, almost all of whom lived in fancy stone, multi-room residential complexes with murals and frescos, fine sculptures and art, etc. Using historical inequality indexes, the city had some of the lowest rates of economic/housing inequality in history)
Very interesting post, thank you! However, i have just one small nitpick: 『larger *than* Rome.』 "Then" indicates that one event follows another; for example: "she ate her broccoli, and *then* she was allowed to have dessert." Similar to the words "pen" and "pan," the words "then" and "than" are distinctly different in their pronunciation and meanings.
He mentions in the beginning of the video napping is how it would’ve been done but GOT made it look like they were forged so he was going to do it that way too to match.
@@Michael-Archonaeus I AM talking about reality. If you look up "Millon Teotihuacan map" on google images you can find an archeological land survey of the site that shows the location of the cities's various buildings and streets, the central urban core was 22 square km, while the city as a whole covered around 60 square km. There are relatively intact residential complexes that still have some of their walls up, which still have their murals and frescos on them. There are entire museum catalogs just devoted to fresco fragements from the site. And the housing inequality thing you can also easily look up: There's a free to access published paper called "Quantitative Measures of Wealth Inequality in Ancient Central Mexican Communities" which talks about it in depth, Teotihuacan measures a mere .12 on the Gini inequality index, compared to the average classical Roman/Egyptian city having a much larger inequality score of .6 or the modern US's .8.
He’s so bad working with his hands. The ideas sound great but when he actually tries to make something he’s so freaking clumsy and awful at everything he does.
You are a good creator with great ideas where you go to a lot of effort to setup but then in execution (read: see the finish line) you then take too many short cuts that affect the end product. Please keep it up though and be patient.
I do wonder, if you'd started on a more full, or thicker shape. Then knapped it down to the intended shape? Not to say you didn't try. It's easy to look in hind sight and criticise.
Also tell him to not add flux, it ceases to be real obsidian at that point. He may also want to melt it in a nearly 0 g*kg (of normal force, finding a place with 0 g is impossible as technically gravity is affecting you wherever you are, 0 g*kg of normal force can be found in low earth orbit) vacuum using electric welding rods in a similar fashion to how it is done in The King of Random. Then he can draw the molten rock into whatever shape he wants! A mold is never going to work for a proper weapon, regardless of material, it must be forged gradually across its length in order to not have one crystal structure that forms parallel lines of potential failure.
It's not just mistakes, is always the SAME KIND of mistakes, usually caused by a lack of care, lazy research, or just general clumsiness. Everything always feels so half-assed. I swear he must have dyspraxia.
A general thing about plaster casts: you want the mold to at least touch 720c. Any volatiles left will result in voids and a hot mold assists with flow. Keep it hot.
Plugging your sponsor is done so organically. I'm really impressed with the choice of timing "While we wait for that, let's check out the sponsor". Practically perfect.
Try heating the mould to remove the wax first. Then keep the mould as hot as you can, maybe by keeping it in a kiln , and this should keep the obsidian flowing much better
You DO know there are metalforming techniques OTHER THAN casting, right? Why are you casting riveted metal strips??? But then again, I suppose that's something they'd do on the show too.
He doesnt have the equipment to craft it. Im pretty sure it’d be much harder to forge them rather than just casting, he should just stop the metal working it bothers too many people who dont know shit and try to compare him other youtubers when they have no experience
Sodium silicate can also be cured with air. It will be a lot slower, but air has enough CO2. That way if you run out of CO2, jut set it in the sun for a few hours, depending on the thickness. Also, don’t pour from as high, it only gives the obsidian or brass time to cool.
Hello love watching your videos, keep up the good work! Just would like to point out that you were 100% correct when smashing off the mold the next morning you said "I don't know why that happened, maybe I didn't burn out all the wax"...the telltale was from the nice yellow flame when you were pouring into the mold (or where I'm from "mould") as it was burning the gases trying to escape the mold as the superheat contacted the wax pockets you had mixed. Also, pouring into a mold from a kiln outside is not advised for best results as you could see cooling to a thicker texture as you were pouring into the mold. Just finally like to add that I do not in any way shape or form declare that I could in any way do a better job than you, and I am no hater, just trying to point out a couple things as all knowledge is good knowledge, and thanks for your knowledge :)
Snoofles_FTW He’s been doing this for a while and with raw ingredients he’s had to process himself and figure out how to process more or less himself. He’s really an expert in trial and error.
@@Treviisolion He certain ain't no master craftsman. He is just some random guy with a lot of curiosity discovering his passion... Which is fully respectable and admirable by the way. But comparing him to a real master craftsman... is not. It's clear from his videos that he has neither the knowledge nor the experience in comparison. He is just a hobbyist, not a professional.
Obsidian was used in weapons not too long ago in a weapon originating in Mexico called a Macuahuitl, consisting of a wooden base similar to a rugby bat, with pieces of jagged obsidian stuck in the edge on all sides. A similar weapon called a Leiomano was made by Polynesian peoples, primarily the Hawaiians, that had shark teeth in place of the jagged obsidian.
If I was going to force it into reality I would go with a doped obsidian. Glass combined with metals, fibers, etc.. that together are strong. Basically things that could reasonably exist within a dragons den that got melted as the dragon was finishing up her home by melting the walls (likely partly silica) and adding things that would strengthen the walls. Kinda like how a bird collects stuff for their nests.
@@trashpanda5947 Dragon glass in game of thrones could have Valyrian steel as one of it's components since it's the only other thing that can kill white walkers. But since Valyrian steel is based on Damascus steel which is just a type of steel, it probably doesn't exist naturally and was smelted.
Yooooo.those who hating the man.. Give him time to improve rather than hating and gaining nothing...i mean loook at him hes learning from his mistakes bit by bit
the thing with casting a obsidian would be to gather a ton of it then melt it and cast it in to a block that you knap in to what ever you want be it a axe head or sword or dagger so only thing the melting proses does is gives you a prosesed material to work with and not to rely on accidental find of a big enough piece So make a solid block roughly the shape you want so you want arrow heads make it more trinagle in shape, then you cast it, let it cool as slowly as possible so that i does not form cracks and then onse you have the " ingot " you knap it to get your arrow heads, onse done right you will get fairly uniform arrow heads with sharp edges
I love your persistance, keep it up! The problems you encounter feel very real and reflect often how I feel when I try to do things myself. So often you only see the polished, edited, final version which is the result of a huge evolution of trial and error. You show all the trial and error and I respect the hell out of you for it!
If you have to mix some kind of powder to decrease the melting point of the glass, and the fact that your kilns are dying off like flies trying to melt the glass, you can imagine how much harder it was (back then) to forge obsidian. The temperatures extremely hot, and the potential that the glass would shatter whilst cooling, could have made it highly time consuming. By the way, borax is used to fuse two different metal strengths together, if you plan to forge say, gold and steel together.
One thing that may help is that glass can be tempered and annealed just like steel. Well not exactly the same. Glass has to be held at higher temperatures than steel for longer periods of time to actually temper it. I think 900 degrees Fahrenheit for at least 9 hours or more to get a good temper. Delft Clay May work for molding as well. Also wet sanding can get you a sharper edge.
silicon is a metal added to base melts to create alloys (or used solo in electronics), silicone is a polymer used in mold recipes. With that said, yes, making a mold is by far the best move he couldve made. Watching a foam mold go bad is heartbreaking when that pattern took hours or even days to make
3:17 my favourite part of the video, me: "what's that interesting sound?" "...a new high tech machine?" Depressed lady with garbage: *grrrrrrrrrrttt ....* Me: 🤣 10:13 Two depressed ladies with garbage: *grrrrrrrrrrrrrttttttt* Me: 🤣😂😂
I remember one video of his said that it took long enough to get the contents of a fueled forge to the right temperature that he didn't want to keep a flame going that long. Running an electric kiln overnight is safer than running a propane torch overnight.
I'd love to make a suggestion. If you can find a machinist you can have a solid metal basic form made for the pouring. Just like with the knife but it would be heated first and cool more consistantly to allow a better oversized form. Then flint the edges to create the sharp sides. Great vid keep up the great work.
Lost foam casting works best in loose sand, with a thin drywall mud slurry coating the foam pattern, and a few venting straws. straight sodium-silicate-sand molds wont have near the porosity to vent that foam once its vaporized. You ought to look into Oil-sand casting. Petrobond is a brand name. Given the amount of casting it seems like youre doing, it will be worth the investment.
I've been watching you for a while and while I applaud your gusto and creativity, man I don't know if you purposefully intend to fail. Cold molds and hot glass don't work. Your glass maker friends know this. Drastic changes in temperature, excess heat and excess temp changes are not friends to glass.
Love the content. But a good trick to get your exposure correct for filming fire, go outside and point the lens to the sky during midday. The blue of the sky is as intense as the fire and you'll get a better end result
Check out Alec Steele's latest vid series on making a cavalry sabre. He went through a few attempts, but eventually perfected bonze casting. He makes a wax mold, then uses plaster around it to make the cast, and then melts the wax out of the cast in an oven. After that, he has an empty mold without a bunch of foam inside to get in the way. This was his first bronze cast, and he got it perfect. Really shows what you can do with enough research and very careful meticulous workshop practice. Check him out :)
Plus, the cast material he uses melts away in water. That way you won't need to use a hammer and chisel to get the final product out of the mold, and you won't risk breaking it.
NOW UNITED UPDATES lol, nope, i only found his videos about a month ago, but i marathoned a lot of his series, like the viking sword one, which was my fav. After watching his professionalism, it makes coming back to vids like this a bit frustrating, cuse i know he could do it right if he just did a bit more research.
I honestly think that guy just doesn't want to succeed. He never learns from his mistakes or if the mold already looks crappy he still continues. I dunno.. but at some point you should improve. I liked his channel but started to dislike it.
Great effort, but you can see the technical issues trying to cast a material with this high a melting temp. This is why the Aztecs used natural obsidian flakes to form the cutting edge on their Macuahuitl (battle axe)-flaking off sharp sections is about as good as you can do with a brittle material like this. Interesting video, though.
@@Hydrastic-bz5qm if a wyvern is a dragon, why does a dragon have 4 legs and a wyvern have 2? theyre used somewhat interchangably in fantasy yes, but there are a few distinctions that make them seperate
Glass blower here, why don't you try the pressed glass method used by Lalique and daum ? With the metal-like casting and annealing methods you used, your obsidian is guaranteed to break because glass is extremely sensible to temperature change, unless it's very specific like borosilicate. I also suggest you to use the pâte de verre technique above all, you will have way more control over the final result.
I’m sure I’ve said this before but try and use petrobond sand casting I’ve used it a lot and it works perfectly it’s just a mixture of sand and petroleum and it is very reusable
That's true with any metal that can be work hardened, but obsidian wouldn't be something you could forge anyway so casting would work. You can't make it harder by hammering it anyway.
Most melee weapons are originally cast pieces or were fabricated from cast products, swords, maces, saps, knuckles. Name it and most if not all of its components were cast at one point or another.
@@corwinweber693 When was the last time a metal that could be work hardened was actually work hardened then used in an effective melee weapon? Honest question.
@@willplume1555 Erm..... you're aware that both iron and steel can be, right? That's what JN 1991 is referring to. Yes, you CAN cast blades, and people have before. They're inferior to forged blades. Maces and picks as well.
@@corwinweber693 Yes, that is true. But they would be brittle and terrible weapons if the forging process only involved banging the material Into shape, which is what work hardening is. Fortunately for us modern folk, we have a more in-depth and thorough forging process which has a few steps: The shaping (banging the material into shape), then normalizing (heating the material to a high temperature for a shortish time removing all the uneven stress put into the material during shaping which disqualifies it from being classified as work hardened and also keeps the weapon from breaking or warping during the quench), then tempering (heating the metal to a relatively low temperature for a longish time to provide a softer more resilient blade) which can be done differentially (think katana) to keep the blade harder and the back more flexible, and finally the quench (locks the molecular structure of the material in place and provides a lovely roughly complete weapon). If you're interested in some good channels that go more into the nitty gritty of forging I'd suggest Man at Arms/Reforged on the AweMe Channel and Aleck Steel. Both have a lot of great stuff on forging weapons.
I think you need to compact the mold better than that... And remove water and organic materials by pre-heating it. Also, I never did metal casting, but I think your'e supposed to add vent holes when doing complex castings. Otherwise, gas expansion prevents the metal from seeping into the small holes.
The whole obsidian can be melted = worked like metal sound wrong. Try working it like the glass it is. (No castings of solid glass and more glassworking. The most solid option would be “obsidian coted axe” where you would start by forging an iron/steel / other metal (with higher or at least slightly lower melting point than obsidian) axe head with lined cuts on its surface to give it larger chance to stick, or holes through the head if it was unsuccesfull. Then you would slowly melt small amounts of obsidian and slowly coat the axe head with it. When you finish the basic shape of the axe head you would reheat the whole axe head in your kilm at temperature at which the obsidian would be slightly melted and mainly sticky to help the layers get a better grip on each other. Your goal is to in the best case heat the whole axe head to this temperature and slowly let it coal to let it form its crystaline structure. This axe will still be somewhat fragile which you could somewhat compenzate by adding small layers of steel wire (2-5 mm) on top of each layer. I would try to make the layers about half an inch thick, but the density of obsidian will make it difficult and almost imposible without a good blowtorch to keep the layers at this thickness.
You should try sintering the obsidian instead of casting it. Obsidian is a glass/ amorphic material so it has no long range crystal structure which means certain areas will form different solid phases if they are not cooled at the same rate, resulting in micro fractures. Sintering is a process that is used for making Pyrex and other industrial ceramics. TL,DR: Can you sinter an Obsidian axe?
Hay I have experience casting and if you remove the styrofoam first you will get a much better cast The styrofoam is meant to make the shape but not to hold it leaving it there causes impurities and causes the metal to fail to move through the cast improperly
Since obsidian is, in fact, glass... could you turn it into borosilicate glass like old fashioned PYREX? Or maybe stabilize it with a crystal of a higher Mohs hardness, like quartz? I'm feeling like the difficulty is more that you're trying to have a finished item out of the cast... what if you were to use a high count sandpaper or micomesh to smooth it down and get an edge on it? Buff it down gently, maybe do some light knapping first and then even it out?
Too many internet professionals are getting triggered by your casting. Im surprised by how many keyboard warriors you have on your channel. Anyways your channels great been here since 100k
Carbon is a chemical element with the symbol C and atomic number 6. It is nonmetallic and tetravalent-making four electrons available to form covalent chemical bonds. It belongs to group 14 of the periodic table. Wikipedia Symbol: C Recognized as an element by: Antoine Lavoisier (1789) Element category: Reactive nonmetal, sometimes considered a metalloid Sublimation point: 3915 K (3642 °C, 6588 °F) Triple point: 4600 K, 10,800 kPa Did you know: Fullerenes are a "soccer ball" shape of carbon.
I am a professional glass caster and could give plenty of pointers on both sand and kiln casting since I have the unique opportunity to do both on a daily basis.
The axe head would have done better being entirely kiln cast, or at least ramped again post hot pour to fill out the details, but co2 sand is not ideal for that. As you noticed with plaster molds they have cracking issues, plastere isn't refractory enough on its own which is why we use it in combination with equal parts silica flour.
If you want more detailed info feel free to reach out and I can provide plenty of info from the PDF's I have collected and made for students and colleagues.
Multiple glass artists have tried to tell him the right way to do it. He's not interested.
I'm interested though
@@dominicknepper2082 because he's a dumb geek. He's not a real nerd. We don't accept him. We cast him out into the dweebus realm.
@@dominicknepper2082 There not interested because it's a company and not just a "UA-camr".
I think at this point this dude does it on purpose tbh, but my gripe is he spends money, time and effort, why not do it properly, most of his projects turns out to be a disaster of some sort, except where the woodworker dude is involved. But I still watch this channel, and maybe they know that people like to see Andy struggle.
Andy - breaker of crucibles, destroyer of kilns, slayer of molds, father of incomplete casts
😂😂👌
I'm just curious as to how he's paying for all that shit.
Ma C
“I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.”
-Thomas A. Edison
Love the videos; keep ‘em coming!
Ma C lol
He is a grand overlord indeed
You should build your own kiln ... Seeing as how you go through the 1-3 an episode
Matthew Olsen right! Alec steel has a good video on it
He'd probably break a kiln while making his own.
It is an important piece of technology, and making one from scratch is not too difficult. Plus, he can do a second video and make a modern electric one with modern materials.
should go old school and build a legit one
hell, he might be able to piece together some working parts from all the defunked ones he has unless he tosses them out immediately apon literal meltdown
I love how most youtubers try to edit so they look super compitent and you haven't done that AT ALL. Solid honesty!
“solid honesty!”
is that a pun?
@@JustSomeDevKid yeah, and he had to write that comment multiple times for that pun and broke a couple of fingers maybe lol
@@Bluenochian I appreciate the fact that you responded to a 3-year old reply
At this pont, he could probably make some discount deal with a kiln manufacturer...
i think a klin manufacturer has to sponsor them
Or work for them as a full-time stress-tester.
@@janneaalto3956 *user incompetence tester
still love the guy though
@@MsHumanOfTheDecade hahaha so true!
I dont understand how hes fucked up so many.
Maybe, you should try casting a "rough" shape and knap the final/refined product...
thats what i thought
it would probably shatter the whole thing as obsidian it would be similar to trying to hammer a piece of glass
@@wolves600 Nope. Obsidian Napping has been around for a long time. If you do It right, it wont completely shatter.
@Stephen Laverty 0o
@Stephen Laverty 0o
Next video series idea: Can you make a kiln from scratch?
good idea, but I dont think we need a new video every other day.
he'd need 14 working kilns to make a working one
My Prediction: He breaks 5 kilns in the process
as someone who did a 4 year apprenticeship to become a molder i will tell you a few things. add vents and risers to your thinner parts of ur mold. Yes it will mean felting after but the risers will draw the metal to the thinner parts. also for a think mold like that i would prob do a 2 box flat back mold with vents and risers on the flat side to hide them and also i would have the mold flat not vertical
Try casting obsidian to give a rough shape of the final form, with enough thickness to knap it
That was what I was thinking. It seems plausible to cast obsidian in order to get it to a close shape to what's needed, then knap it to a razor edge. I'm not sure if the casting would affect the ability of the obsidian to fracture sharply.
@@Guru_1092 it'd probably make it too brittle to knap. It would more than likely shatter completely after the first hit.
you can't knap it after it's cast sorry
its structure is different after a cast
That's the ticket right there
"Should be pretty easy..."
5 minutes later
"So I broke my kiln..."
Everyone knows you can’t make an obsidian axe
It’s not in the crafting recipes
They had us in the first half, I’m not gonna lie
He knows that, hes baiting for views. He said in the first video that the flux weakens the obesidian ruining the strength of it
And THAT is when you realize he is playing with the mod "Tinkers Construct"
Checkmate!
ou kid r/woosh
he just has to mod the shit out of life
**melts obsidian**
Minecraft players: *impossible*
Wubba Lubba Dub Dub copied
😂
Fair enough, melting sand or glass is impossible to the naive. Glass only melts around half the temperature of iron, totally impossible! ;)
@@spvillanogetting all the sand to melt properly is the challenge
Food $200
Data $150
Rent $800
Kilns $36,000
Utility $150
someone who is good at the economy please help me budget this. my family is dying
Your spending to much on food,
Cut back the food
Rent? You don't need that babe. Put that $800 into kilns where it belongs
@@FireflyJuu yeah, you can live in the kiln, it is nice and cozy
@@gluestickgenius2644 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂i dont know why i laughed aloot at this
Your spending much on kilns, put it into kilns
Might want to save up and buy some purpose built equipment.
And some classes on casting techniques.
i.e. your manufactured obsidian could probably be cast flat on an open mold, torch heated to slow the cooling process (simulating the slow cooling process of natural obsidian), while moulding the flat side with tools to get the flat side textured.
Similar to modern glass sculpting techniques.
But where the fun in not burning out a half dozen kilns and overburdening the local electricity grid with wattage it was likely never meant to sustain?
Classes... It's painful to watch this guy do almost anything.
He isn't trying to do things well or properly. He is trying to do it on a budget basis with limited equipment as to "learn" what it is to make in a not so modern time... he explains it better in earlier videos..
Stop using electric kilns and make a gas foundry
SerenityGene He tried.
@@shania-antonio6425 😥
why stop at that, aim for the stars directly skip to the backyard-blast furnace :_D
@@SeleenShadowpaw or literally aim for the stars... Make a furnace using a giant fresnel lens and the sun
I think the problem with gas is that it adds impurities to your castings.
Cameraman: "Had anyone been been seriously injured on this show."
Forgetting that he almost killed a man with a pickle: "No"
A pickle 😆
I want to point out that it IS in fact possible to make large, singular pieces of obsidian blades with fine details and complicated shapes, but it's not done by casting, but by extremely intricate and precise knapping. If you look up "obsidian eccentric" or "eccentric flint", you can see a ton of examples of large pieces of flint and obsidian shaped into things like the faces of kings, snakes, etc by various Mesoamerican civilizations, mostly the Maya, but also the Teotihuacano (another civilization from the same time period as the Maya at their height, though in Central Mexico like the later Toltec and Aztec rather then the Yucatan like the Maya: At it's height, the city of Teotihuacan covered 60 square kilometers, larger then Rome, had a sewage system; and had hundreds of thousands of inhabitants, almost all of whom lived in fancy stone, multi-room residential complexes with murals and frescos, fine sculptures and art, etc. Using historical inequality indexes, the city had some of the lowest rates of economic/housing inequality in history)
Very interesting post, thank you!
However, i have just one small nitpick:
『larger *than* Rome.』
"Then" indicates that one event follows another; for example: "she ate her broccoli, and *then* she was allowed to have dessert."
Similar to the words "pen" and "pan," the words "then" and "than" are distinctly different in their pronunciation and meanings.
He mentions in the beginning of the video napping is how it would’ve been done but GOT made it look like they were forged so he was going to do it that way too to match.
Great fairy tale. Let's get back to reality now :)
@@Michael-Archonaeus I AM talking about reality. If you look up "Millon Teotihuacan map" on google images you can find an archeological land survey of the site that shows the location of the cities's various buildings and streets, the central urban core was 22 square km, while the city as a whole covered around 60 square km. There are relatively intact residential complexes that still have some of their walls up, which still have their murals and frescos on them. There are entire museum catalogs just devoted to fresco fragements from the site. And the housing inequality thing you can also easily look up: There's a free to access published paper called "Quantitative Measures of Wealth Inequality in Ancient Central Mexican Communities" which talks about it in depth, Teotihuacan measures a mere .12 on the Gini inequality index, compared to the average classical Roman/Egyptian city having a much larger inequality score of .6 or the modern US's .8.
Holy crap, this! These are mind blowing!
name change "how to spectacularly fail at everything"
rude..
True.
He’s so bad working with his hands. The ideas sound great but when he actually tries to make something he’s so freaking clumsy and awful at everything he does.
so basicaly my life
@@SubjectiveFunny rude? But true
*cuts out over probably 100 hours of film but keeps the stuff with the trash ladies in the back
Haha. I was thinking the same.
I was thinking, "Props for showing the people doing actual work."
I was wondering if anyone else was going to bring up the trash lady
You are a good creator with great ideas where you go to a lot of effort to setup but then in execution (read: see the finish line) you then take too many short cuts that affect the end product.
Please keep it up though and be patient.
You really should invest in a gas kiln. They are much less problematic.
But...they reduce the shit outta the glass
Plus. .his dumb ass would be dead
@@autopartsmonkey7992 what do you mean by reducing the glass?
Propane is not that cheap
@@agamjotsb its alot cheaper then electric..per btu..and over all
I do wonder, if you'd started on a more full, or thicker shape. Then knapped it down to the intended shape?
Not to say you didn't try. It's easy to look in hind sight and criticise.
How to success:
Cast one big slab of obsidian, that is flat and wide
Knap it into your desired shape
Great method, right until the moment he makes one false blow, and snaps the whole axe in two lol :P
@@Michael-Archonaeus LOL that definitely might happen
Also tell him to not add flux, it ceases to be real obsidian at that point. He may also want to melt it in a nearly 0 g*kg (of normal force, finding a place with 0 g is impossible as technically gravity is affecting you wherever you are, 0 g*kg of normal force can be found in low earth orbit) vacuum using electric welding rods in a similar fashion to how it is done in The King of Random. Then he can draw the molten rock into whatever shape he wants!
A mold is never going to work for a proper weapon, regardless of material, it must be forged gradually across its length in order to not have one crystal structure that forms parallel lines of potential failure.
_GENDRY WAS ABLE TO CAST THIS_
_IN A CAVE_
_WITH A WAGON OF COALS_
Well, he's not Gendry.
princecharon I’m actually really happy you got the reference, haha.
The real axe isn't cast its knaped obsidian.
Saul skunk .....okay.....
Without any snacks!
he always ends up failing by doing some kind of mistake... And the mess you make i mean for real? Good video but its frustrating to watch
Painfully incompetent!
He really need to team up with someone more competent. If not I will stop watching he's channel.
Yeah it’s always been painful to watch but I figured with time it would get better. Apparently it doesn’t, it gets worse
It's not just mistakes, is always the SAME KIND of mistakes, usually caused by a lack of care, lazy research, or just general clumsiness. Everything always feels so half-assed. I swear he must have dyspraxia.
"I messed it up, but I'm going to keep going anyway."
*Surprised when it doesn't work out as planned*
Every time I watch this guy try to make something I just think....and now to go find an actual expert on the subject.
The dude gives up too easily
Thats just rude in a way
@@jyunny598 He does though... He just uses the scant material he has first try, then gives up.
A general thing about plaster casts: you want the mold to at least touch 720c. Any volatiles left will result in voids and a hot mold assists with flow. Keep it hot.
yeah the liquid glass was starting to solidify as it touched the mold, so it didn't fill the mold properly.
Plugging your sponsor is done so organically. I'm really impressed with the choice of timing "While we wait for that, let's check out the sponsor". Practically perfect.
dragon glass axe:
my skyrim ass: wuuthrad...
Try heating the mould to remove the wax first. Then keep the mould as hot as you can, maybe by keeping it in a kiln , and this should keep the obsidian flowing much better
You DO know there are metalforming techniques OTHER THAN casting, right? Why are you casting riveted metal strips???
But then again, I suppose that's something they'd do on the show too.
He doesnt have the equipment to craft it. Im pretty sure it’d be much harder to forge them rather than just casting, he should just stop the metal working it bothers too many people who dont know shit and try to compare him other youtubers when they have no experience
@@oukid2633 In that case, shouldn't his channel be "How To Make Everything *incorrectly*"?
@@dudenamedclem There never was a claim that he was showing how to make everything accurately or correctly.
@@ravendevino6419 Thank you the white night of the channel, defender of the obvious.
@@dudenamedclem You're welcome bridge troll of the channel, waster of oxygen. Like really, trees work hard to make that for you...
Mom: Hey what are you watching?
Me: A guy melt a bunch of rocks to cut things
Mom (confused look): uh okay?
A guy making real Dragon-glass, from ancient casting technology.
Sodium silicate can also be cured with air. It will be a lot slower, but air has enough CO2. That way if you run out of CO2, jut set it in the sun for a few hours, depending on the thickness.
Also, don’t pour from as high, it only gives the obsidian or brass time to cool.
That part where the cleaner/s walked into shot was masterful.
Hello love watching your videos, keep up the good work! Just would like to point out that you were 100% correct when smashing off the mold the next morning you said "I don't know why that happened, maybe I didn't burn out all the wax"...the telltale was from the nice yellow flame when you were pouring into the mold (or where I'm from "mould") as it was burning the gases trying to escape the mold as the superheat contacted the wax pockets you had mixed. Also, pouring into a mold from a kiln outside is not advised for best results as you could see cooling to a thicker texture as you were pouring into the mold. Just finally like to add that I do not in any way shape or form declare that I could in any way do a better job than you, and I am no hater, just trying to point out a couple things as all knowledge is good knowledge, and thanks for your knowledge :)
This is the first video I have seen of this guy and he begins by saying people think he is an expert on this.
How?
Snoofles_FTW He’s been doing this for a while and with raw ingredients he’s had to process himself and figure out how to process more or less himself. He’s really an expert in trial and error.
@@Treviisolion He certain ain't no master craftsman. He is just some random guy with a lot of curiosity discovering his passion... Which is fully respectable and admirable by the way. But comparing him to a real master craftsman... is not. It's clear from his videos that he has neither the knowledge nor the experience in comparison. He is just a hobbyist, not a professional.
the way he made his styrofoam mold would be a great way to make an obsidian cosplay piece.
Better of with 2# mc foam and plastidip. It will be able to flex more without breaking.
Obsidian was used in weapons not too long ago in a weapon originating in Mexico called a Macuahuitl, consisting of a wooden base similar to a rugby bat, with pieces of jagged obsidian stuck in the edge on all sides. A similar weapon called a Leiomano was made by Polynesian peoples, primarily the Hawaiians, that had shark teeth in place of the jagged obsidian.
Damn you can't go through a single step without making a massive mistake lmao
Like we could even heat up a kiln right
i now forger
i spent the last 3 years working in a foundry and this video caused me physical and emotional pain
10:25 : when you’re working on something in Minecraft and realize you ran out of wood
atomic number of carbon is 6
also can you do a kiln review on how you broke each one
what on earth is it to do with carbon - i think there's very little carbon in obsidian - more like silicon
antigen4 it’s basically just really dirty and not clear glass
I have never seen a more satisfying and yet unsatisfying video on youtube than this one
"We might need an actual dragon. At least what our budget will allow" 😂
this assumes "dragon glass" in the GoT universe is really just simple obsidian and not some magical substance
If I was going to force it into reality I would go with a doped obsidian. Glass combined with metals, fibers, etc.. that together are strong. Basically things that could reasonably exist within a dragons den that got melted as the dragon was finishing up her home by melting the walls (likely partly silica) and adding things that would strengthen the walls. Kinda like how a bird collects stuff for their nests.
@@trashpanda5947 Dragon glass in game of thrones could have Valyrian steel as one of it's components since it's the only other thing that can kill white walkers. But since Valyrian steel is based on Damascus steel which is just a type of steel, it probably doesn't exist naturally and was smelted.
how can you go through so many kilns and materials every episode!?
Yooooo.those who hating the man..
Give him time to improve rather than hating and gaining nothing...i mean loook at him hes learning from his mistakes bit by bit
LOL, why is everyone moving trash cans in this vid?
(Edit): OMG thanks for 196 likes :)
Definitely my favorite skit in the show
As the first time we saw one, the second two, I figured before the end of the episode we would see three ladies tromping by with trash cans!
those are full of all of his mistakes
Those were the failed attempts
- Does a half-assed job every step of the way
- When things don't work out:
*Surprised Pikachu face*
most of us prob just watched the people with the trash bins ._.
wow i go 8 likes?
I'm glad I'm not the only one who noticed the significant can dragging cameos.
the thing with casting a obsidian would be to gather a ton of it then melt it and cast it in to a block that you knap in to what ever you want be it a axe head or sword or dagger
so only thing the melting proses does is gives you a prosesed material to work with and not to rely on accidental find of a big enough piece
So make a solid block roughly the shape you want so you want arrow heads make it more trinagle in shape, then you cast it, let it cool as slowly as possible so that i does not form cracks and then onse you have the " ingot " you knap it to get your arrow heads, onse done right you will get fairly uniform arrow heads with sharp edges
You should make a whole channel just for cutting styrofoam with that wire cutter thing. Oddly satisfying af.
pre-heating the mold might help
also, the techniques shouldn've be combined: you cast it, and then you brake off flakes from it to make sharp edges
I love this channel. I think 80% of everything he does fails, but hes just so positive about it haha. Poor guy
I love your persistance, keep it up! The problems you encounter feel very real and reflect often how I feel when I try to do things myself. So often you only see the polished, edited, final version which is the result of a huge evolution of trial and error. You show all the trial and error and I respect the hell out of you for it!
you should put the Obsidian word first...
for clickbait purposes ofcouese
If you have to mix some kind of powder to decrease the melting point of the glass, and the fact that your kilns are dying off like flies trying to melt the glass, you can imagine how much harder it was (back then) to forge obsidian. The temperatures extremely hot, and the potential that the glass would shatter whilst cooling, could have made it highly time consuming.
By the way, borax is used to fuse two different metal strengths together, if you plan to forge say, gold and steel together.
You should check out the king of random’s homemade metal foundry, might be a good alternative to the kilns
One thing that may help is that glass can be tempered and annealed just like steel. Well not exactly the same. Glass has to be held at higher temperatures than steel for longer periods of time to actually temper it. I think 900 degrees Fahrenheit for at least 9 hours or more to get a good temper. Delft Clay May work for molding as well. Also wet sanding can get you a sharper edge.
I just love the way he half arses everything, and actually tells you about it...just awesome
After watching experts do stuff perfectly seemingly without trying it is refreshing to see someone flounder around trying something new like I do :D.
Yeeeahh!!!! I was sooo glad when you showed you had made silicon molds ^^
Great video!
silicon is a metal added to base melts to create alloys (or used solo in electronics), silicone is a polymer used in mold recipes.
With that said, yes, making a mold is by far the best move he couldve made. Watching a foam mold go bad is heartbreaking when that pattern took hours or even days to make
@@socrazybmx well thank you, that's interesting =)
I'll try not to make the mistake again.
English isn't my first langage.
@@amelienabet1861 no worries...its just a silly little typo that i always catch lol...somehow I seem to find them everywhere I look
Bro, I've had the same kiln for 10 years. You're a wizard of destruction.
3:17 my favourite part of the video, me: "what's that interesting sound?" "...a new high tech machine?" Depressed lady with garbage: *grrrrrrrrrrttt ....*
Me: 🤣
10:13 Two depressed ladies with garbage: *grrrrrrrrrrrrrttttttt*
Me: 🤣😂😂
This is one of the best Cosplay videos ever.
You should stop using kilns, you should use a metal melting forge to do that since there’s nothing to “burn out” on a fuel based system
I remember one video of his said that it took long enough to get the contents of a fueled forge to the right temperature that he didn't want to keep a flame going that long. Running an electric kiln overnight is safer than running a propane torch overnight.
I'd love to make a suggestion. If you can find a machinist you can have a solid metal basic form made for the pouring. Just like with the knife but it would be heated first and cool more consistantly to allow a better oversized form. Then flint the edges to create the sharp sides.
Great vid keep up the great work.
This channel should actually be called "How To Fail At Everything".
Lost foam casting works best in loose sand, with a thin drywall mud slurry coating the foam pattern, and a few venting straws. straight sodium-silicate-sand molds wont have near the porosity to vent that foam once its vaporized.
You ought to look into Oil-sand casting. Petrobond is a brand name. Given the amount of casting it seems like youre doing, it will be worth the investment.
> Can You Melt Dragonglass and Cast an Obsidian Axe?
The answer is "Yes", but there's some fine print...
I've been watching you for a while and while I applaud your gusto and creativity, man I don't know if you purposefully intend to fail. Cold molds and hot glass don't work. Your glass maker friends know this. Drastic changes in temperature, excess heat and excess temp changes are not friends to glass.
In the next video make valyrian steel by grinding up obsidian into power and sprinkle it on your molton steel as you fold it
I know your probably sick of obsidian but you could try making like an orb of it as it seems to round off quite nicely. could be a neat thing to have
"I'm gonna try different methods of casting"
*every single way of casting he does is wrong*
"So that didn't work"
Victor Becker never does it the same way twice to work out kinks...or plans an organized way to do anything...all over the place. Drives me nuts.
He is really good at finding ways how not to do a good casting.
@@Gillymonster18 Gotta crank out them vids. The only way they can afford all the kilns and interns.
A tip for casting, put the mold in the kiln first to burn out the styrofoam so is casts better.
Lol Andy is the guy who is all thumbs but never gives up. Love ya bro
Love the content. But a good trick to get your exposure correct for filming fire, go outside and point the lens to the sky during midday. The blue of the sky is as intense as the fire and you'll get a better end result
Check out Alec Steele's latest vid series on making a cavalry sabre. He went through a few attempts, but eventually perfected bonze casting.
He makes a wax mold, then uses plaster around it to make the cast, and then melts the wax out of the cast in an oven. After that, he has an empty mold without a bunch of foam inside to get in the way.
This was his first bronze cast, and he got it perfect. Really shows what you can do with enough research and very careful meticulous workshop practice.
Check him out :)
Danielle Spargo with all that detailed information, you sounds like you’re the Alec you’re promoting.
Plus, the cast material he uses melts away in water. That way you won't need to use a hammer and chisel to get the final product out of the mold, and you won't risk breaking it.
NOW UNITED UPDATES
lol, nope, i only found his videos about a month ago, but i marathoned a lot of his series, like the viking sword one, which was my fav.
After watching his professionalism, it makes coming back to vids like this a bit frustrating, cuse i know he could do it right if he just did a bit more research.
I honestly think that guy just doesn't want to succeed. He never learns from his mistakes or if the mold already looks crappy he still continues. I dunno.. but at some point you should improve. I liked his channel but started to dislike it.
Eric Theodore Cartman He should stop making casting vids so he doesnt get triggered key board warriors like you.
Great effort, but you can see the technical issues trying to cast a material with this high a melting temp. This is why the Aztecs used natural obsidian flakes to form the cutting edge on their Macuahuitl (battle axe)-flaking off sharp sections is about as good as you can do with a brittle material like this. Interesting video, though.
Movie magic? Not real obsidian?
Next thing you're gonna tell us they don't even use real dragons on the show!
I want real dragons!
they dont use real dragons the GoT "dragons" are actually wyverns
@@andykapsar4667 wyverns are dragons
@@Hydrastic-bz5qm if a wyvern is a dragon, why does a dragon have 4 legs and a wyvern have 2? theyre used somewhat interchangably in fantasy yes, but there are a few distinctions that make them seperate
@Jerry C real unicorns! We need this to happen
Glass blower here, why don't you try the pressed glass method used by Lalique and daum ? With the metal-like casting and annealing methods you used, your obsidian is guaranteed to break because glass is extremely sensible to temperature change, unless it's very specific like borosilicate. I also suggest you to use the pâte de verre technique above all, you will have way more control over the final result.
New name for channel... How to break everything...
I’m sure I’ve said this before but try and use petrobond sand casting I’ve used it a lot and it works perfectly it’s just a mixture of sand and petroleum and it is very reusable
I appreciate your efforts. But as a general rule, melee weapons should not be casted.
That's true with any metal that can be work hardened, but obsidian wouldn't be something you could forge anyway so casting would work. You can't make it harder by hammering it anyway.
Most melee weapons are originally cast pieces or were fabricated from cast products, swords, maces, saps, knuckles. Name it and most if not all of its components were cast at one point or another.
@@corwinweber693 When was the last time a metal that could be work hardened was actually work hardened then used in an effective melee weapon? Honest question.
@@willplume1555 Erm..... you're aware that both iron and steel can be, right? That's what JN 1991 is referring to. Yes, you CAN cast blades, and people have before. They're inferior to forged blades. Maces and picks as well.
@@corwinweber693 Yes, that is true. But they would be brittle and terrible weapons if the forging process only involved banging the material Into shape, which is what work hardening is. Fortunately for us modern folk, we have a more in-depth and thorough forging process which has a few steps: The shaping (banging the material into shape), then normalizing (heating the material to a high temperature for a shortish time removing all the uneven stress put into the material during shaping which disqualifies it from being classified as work hardened and also keeps the weapon from breaking or warping during the quench), then tempering (heating the metal to a relatively low temperature for a longish time to provide a softer more resilient blade) which can be done differentially (think katana) to keep the blade harder and the back more flexible, and finally the quench (locks the molecular structure of the material in place and provides a lovely roughly complete weapon).
If you're interested in some good channels that go more into the nitty gritty of forging I'd suggest Man at Arms/Reforged on the AweMe Channel and Aleck Steel. Both have a lot of great stuff on forging weapons.
I think you need to compact the mold better than that... And remove water and organic materials by pre-heating it. Also, I never did metal casting, but I think your'e supposed to add vent holes when doing complex castings. Otherwise, gas expansion prevents the metal from seeping into the small holes.
Couldn't you just cast it too big then nap it into shape and sharp?
Would probably shatter the whole thing after one hit. The casting process seems to make it way more brittle than normal.
@@Bl4ckD0g His casting makes it brittle, there are other ways.
The whole obsidian can be melted = worked like metal sound wrong. Try working it like the glass it is. (No castings of solid glass and more glassworking. The most solid option would be “obsidian coted axe” where you would start by forging an iron/steel / other metal (with higher or at least slightly lower melting point than obsidian) axe head with lined cuts on its surface to give it larger chance to stick, or holes through the head if it was unsuccesfull. Then you would slowly melt small amounts of obsidian and slowly coat the axe head with it. When you finish the basic shape of the axe head you would reheat the whole axe head in your kilm at temperature at which the obsidian would be slightly melted and mainly sticky to help the layers get a better grip on each other. Your goal is to in the best case heat the whole axe head to this temperature and slowly let it coal to let it form its crystaline structure. This axe will still be somewhat fragile which you could somewhat compenzate by adding small layers of steel wire (2-5 mm) on top of each layer. I would try to make the layers about half an inch thick, but the density of obsidian will make it difficult and almost imposible without a good blowtorch to keep the layers at this thickness.
Hey HTME, another great vid! Honestly your one of the fav youTubers. Keep up the good work! The atomic number for carbon is 6.
You should try sintering the obsidian instead of casting it. Obsidian is a glass/ amorphic material so it has no long range crystal structure which means certain areas will form different solid phases if they are not cooled at the same rate, resulting in micro fractures. Sintering is a process that is used for making Pyrex and other industrial ceramics.
TL,DR: Can you sinter an Obsidian axe?
Can you make a waterbottle it was in the scene!!!
Hay I have experience casting and if you remove the styrofoam first you will get a much better cast The styrofoam is meant to make the shape but not to hold it leaving it there causes impurities and causes the metal to fail to move through the cast improperly
love this video thanks for sharing it
Why is this the top comment
Since obsidian is, in fact, glass... could you turn it into borosilicate glass like old fashioned PYREX? Or maybe stabilize it with a crystal of a higher Mohs hardness, like quartz? I'm feeling like the difficulty is more that you're trying to have a finished item out of the cast... what if you were to use a high count sandpaper or micomesh to smooth it down and get an edge on it? Buff it down gently, maybe do some light knapping first and then even it out?
How yo make everything wrong
That's cool you keep on for all us Game of throne's fan's, or House of the Dragon, GRRM, Bastard Sword, all that..thanks
The title is wrong, it should be something like "a totally inexperienced guy fails several times at making an Obsidian Axe"
I wont lie, I chuckled when he said pointless, (since the blade was without a point)
Too many internet professionals are getting triggered by your casting. Im surprised by how many keyboard warriors you have on your channel. Anyways your channels great been here since 100k
And the savior speaks
Carbon is a chemical element with the symbol C and atomic number 6. It is nonmetallic and tetravalent-making four electrons available to form covalent chemical bonds. It belongs to group 14 of the periodic table. Wikipedia
Symbol: C
Recognized as an element by: Antoine Lavoisier (1789)
Element category: Reactive nonmetal, sometimes considered a metalloid
Sublimation point: 3915 K (3642 °C, 6588 °F)
Triple point: 4600 K, 10,800 kPa
Did you know: Fullerenes are a "soccer ball" shape of carbon.
Maybe look into getting a sponsorship from a kiln wholesaler at this point ;)
id imagine casting an obsidian slab and then knapping it into the appropriate shape and edges would work moderately well