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2023.1.28
Among the bronze swords of Wu and Yue, the most noticeable ones are the sword of King Wu and the sword of King Yue. The sword of the king of Wu, Fu Chai, is 58 cm in length. The front is introverted. There are blood grooves on the two clumps. The middle ridge and edge of the sword are obvious. There is an inscription on the near grid. The sword case is decorated with animal face patterns and inlaid with turquoise, slightly falling off. The stem has double hoops. The Yue Tu Goujian sword, which appeared in Jiangling, Hubei Province, has a total length of 56cm. The front of the sword is introverted and has a two-degree arc posture. The two clumps have blood grooves. The body of the sword is covered with diamond-shaped dark flower patterns. There is a bird seal casting inscription on the close grid. The two sides of the sword are inlaid with blue glass and turquoise. The stem has double hoops. The end of the sword head is decorated with a very narrow concentric circle. This sword is well preserved and bright as new. The sharp knife is still sharp. It can easily cut copper, lead and paper. The two bronze swords are similar in shape and shape, representing the highest level of bronze sword production in the Wuyue area, and can be called national treasures. In this article, we talk about how did the king of Wu Fuchai sword cast.
So, how was such a delicate and sharp sword forged?
In ancient times, there were six kinds of copper smelters, namely, Zhu, Ye, Fu, Li, Duan and Tao. Build and make cutting knives; Smelting, making arrowheads, daggers and halberds; Fu, casting bell; Chestnut, measuring instrument; Segment; Peach, cast sword. It can be seen that the importance of casting swords as a kind of work is closely related to the prosperity of copper swords in the Central Plains at that time. So, what is the basic situation of sword casting, and what are the main procedures and techniques? During the Warring States Period, what outstanding achievements have been made in sword casting in the Central Plains?
The basic method for Daye to cast gold and skillfully make copper swords is casting. There are generally five processes for casting a copper sword.
(1) Model
Namely, make moulds for casting. The sword model is mostly made of clay, then put into the kiln, dried by fire, and then corrected. The texture is like pottery, so it is called clay model or pottery model. The modeling is based on the shape design of the copper sword, and whether the shape of the copper sword can meet the design requirements, whether it is regular and harmonious, symmetrical and beautiful, depends on whether the modeling is fine. The pattern making also lays the foundation for the later decoration. For example, the patterns and inscriptions cast on the body of the sword must be engraved with the opposite patterns of yin and yang on the inner wall of the sword model in advance. In fact, the first step of the copper sword decoration is the pattern.
(2) Adjustment
The sword is made of bronze, which is an alloy of copper and tin or copper and tin and lead. Dose refers to the proportion of each component in the bronze alloy.
(3) Smelting
After the raw materials are prepared, put them into the crucible for smelting. The purpose of smelting is to melt copper, tin, lead and other raw materials into one, and also further remove impurities contained in the raw materials, such as charcoal attached to the raw materials, as well as oxides, sulfides, iron and other metal elements contained in the raw materials, so as to refine the alloy.
4) Casting
Pour the melted bronze liquid into the sword model, and wait for it to cool and solidify, then the copper sword will be formed.
(5) Post-casting processing
The copper sword cast by the mold is only a blank with rough surface, so after the mold is removed, the following repair processing must be carried out:
-Scrape and polish to make its surface smooth;
-Decoration, such as inlaying colored glaze and turquoise in the cast pattern groove, or inlaying red copper wire, gold wire, silver wire, and even further carving patterns on the surface. Embedding is a very common decorative process at that time. It is to cast or carve patterns on the surface of copper, then inlay with gold, silver, copper wire (or piece), and polish the surface with a stone, which shows a vivid image with bright colors and clear lines;
-Device accessories, complete with swords;
-Sharpen the edge.