Badakhshan 巴达赫尙 is a historic region comprising parts of what is now northeastern Afghanistan, eastern Tajikistan, and the Taxkorgan Tajik Autonomous County 塔什库尔干塔吉克自治县 in China. The Tajiks 塔吉克 are one of the region’s major ethnic groups.
Film description
Figure 12. The founder during moulding: the clay mould-plate with the finished core of a mould lies on the cast-iron mould base. The founder is in the process of freely building the outer shape from moulding sand
Figure 13. The mixed, sieved and watered moulding sand is prepared. Moulds for ploughshares in the background on the right
Figure 14. Setting up the mould for the cooking kettle: the mould-plate and mould-disk are clearly visible. In the background on the left, sand is being sifted for blacking
Figure 15. The mould core is pulled off with the spatula. The foundryman's brother turns the mould base evenly
Figure 16. On the right in the picture the finished core for the cooking kettle on the mould-plate and mould base. The smooth, blackened surface of the mould is evident. In the foreground there are ploughshares that have been poured and released from the moulds
Figure17a. Model for the ploughshare
Figure17b. Sketch of the mould for the ploughshare
Figure 18. Finished mould for the kettle. You can see the three upper parts, the handle notches on the bases, and the pouring holes at the top
Figure 19. The core of the ploughshare mould. The a layer corresponding to the intended wall thickness is removed with the spatula. The remaining round oval part serves as a support for the core in the upper part. In the background there are ready-made moulds for kettles, a vase and a ploughshare
Figure 20. The intact cupola furnace with the heat shield and the deep tapping opening. On the furnace the ladle. The foundryman breaks up cast-iron scrap for charging
Figure 21. The furnace is being prepared. The finished moulds sit in the trench. They are covered with used sand
Figure 22. Tapping. The foundryman with the ladle and his brother with a stick in front of the furnace
0:08:22
The first takes in the film show the preparation of the moulding sand. Clayey quartz sand is fetched from a nearby river in large shallow wooden bowls. This fresh sand is mixed dry with a large amount of used moulding sand and then sieved so that the dust-like parts, which would give the mould poor gas permeability, is blown away. The sand obtained in this way is mixed with water and is then ready to be moulded (see Figure 13).
1:40:17
Then the core (the part of the mould that forms the inner cavity filled by a casting) for a cooking kettle is formed. As in the preparatory work, this is also done by the foundryman and his brother. They use a cast-iron disk, designed and cast by themselves, resembling a potter’s wheel, which runs smoothly on a ball bearing. A thick mould-plate is made on the disc of dried clay mixed with chaff. This is the base for the mould (cf. Figure 14). While the assistant continuously turns the wheel the moulder puts a ring of sand on the base. In order to save moulding sand, he puts old sand in the middle, which he then covers with moulding sand. He roughens up the resulting surface and continues to build up the mould, then presses it firmly to give it its final shape: He scrapes the rotating form with a spatula (a type of knife without a handle, see Fig. 15) and the resulting surface is smoothed by placing the spatula flat and by dripping on blacking (mixture of fine charcoal dust and fine-grained sand with water; production of this will be shown later in the film), which gives the mould a very fine smooth surface. The core produced in this way is placed in the sun to dry (see Figure 16).
6:15:06
This is followed by the production of the mould for a ploughshare, or rather, plough-shoe (see Figure 16). In contrast to the production of the core for the kettle, a model made of wood is used here (see Figure 17a). First, a 15 cm thick layer of moulding sand is placed on the moulding plate. This time it is laid in sand in which the model is halfway embedded. This gives the lower part of the two-part mould. Dry, fine quartz sand is sprinkled on this dividing plane to prevent it from sticking together with the subsequently formed upper part of the mould. The sand protruding at the back of the model is cut off flush with the model surface, so that the model can be pulled out of the closed form. A recess is cut out on both sides of the upper part so that the upper part can later be lifted off easily. This mould is then also placed in the sun to dry.
9:45:17
Then the core is made for a vase; its production corresponds to that of the kettle core.
12:41:06
After a few days, the core of the kettle mould is dry and firm. It is still on the mould-plate. The outer mould is now formed over it on the mould-plate. A layer of moulding sand about 5 cm thick is placed on top and pressed down (see Figure 12).
14:01:00
After a short drying time, this outer mould is cut into three equal parts by three cuts from top to bottom. These cuts are made by feel alone: it is cut in until the resistance of the dry, solid core is felt.
14:46:16
Small triangular cuts are made at the bottom. These form handles when the shell thirds are later lifted off. Their positions in relation to one another are marked by simple patterns, and the funnel-shaped sprue hole is cut out at the tip. The mould is then taken away to dry again (see Figure 18).
15:17:21
The moulder then creates the outer form for the vase in a similar way.
17:06:15
Now the production of blacking is shown. In a shallow bowl, charcoal dust, fine quartz sand, and water are mixed to make a thin paste. This is filtered through a fine sieve into a second bowl in order to remove any coarse components. (This making of the blacking should have been shown earlier in the film.)
17:51:12
In the film this is followed by the final work on the mould for the kettle, which is still on the mould-plate. The three outer mould parts are lifted off and a layer corresponding to the wall-thickness desired for the cast kettle is removed from the core. For this purpose, a spiral furrow is turned from top to bottom in the rotating mould with the tip of the spatula. This gives the constant wall thickness of the cast kettle. Then the sand is removed with the spatula to the bottom of the furrow and the surface is smoothed.
20:04:06
To check whether the wall thickness is the same everywhere an external mould part is put in place. The moulded parts are blown clean with a bellows, rubbed with a piece of fur, and dripped with blacking. Circumferential grooves are now carved into the smooth surface of the core with the tip of the spatula; these serve later as measurement marks in cooking.
23:46:10
Then the core for the two-part outer mould of the ploughshare is made in one piece with the lateral end-piece of the outer form (see Figure 17b). The mould is filled with moulding sand through the side.
24:50:10
When the core is dry it is removed from the mould. The core is scraped off with the spatula by the amount of the wall thickness of the ploughshare (see Figure 19) and then smoothed with blacking. Before the inner surfaces of the outer mould are also smoothed with the spatula and blacking, the mould for the ploughshare is moulded into the upper and lower part with the spatula. Now the two outer mould halves are put together. At the side of the outer mould, a piece is cut out at the top to form a pouring hole. The mould is then ready to be poured (see Figure 17b).
26:46:23
The moulds are ready; now preparations are made for casting. First the wooden tuyères of the bellows are covered with wet clay to protect them from the heat when they are inserted in the cupola furnace. The same is done with the ladle. In this part of the film the bellows is clearly visible; later it hardly comes into the picture clearly: It is a goatskin that is closed at the top with two wooden sticks, and at the bottom has an open leg-stump with a wooden tuyère.
In some of the takes one can also see the cupola furnace from different sides. There are actually two furnaces built at right angles to each other: One of these, the older one, which had slag before it was tapped, had recently burst and therefore was out of operation. (According to the foundryman it could be repaired.) Behind the furnace is a 250 cm high wall made of clay like the furnace. This is a heat shield behind which an assistant works with two bellows side by side. Each of the furnaces is roughly cubical, about 110 cm on each side, with straight walls and slightly rounded corners. The taphole on the front is about 40 cm above the ground; the walls of the furnace are tapered towards the top; an opening about 40 cm in diameter remains at the mouth (see Figure 20).
27:25:09
[The pig iron and scrap iron to be charged into the furnace.]
27:50:02
A number of other takes show the charging of the cupola furnace. First, embers and charcoal (brought from the founders’ home) are kindled to a fire with the blower, which is inserted into the furnace through the taphole below. This hole is now closed with clay, a pottery shard is pressed in, and a stick is placed against this as a support.
29:20:04
Now comes the actual charging: Charcoal and raw material are alternately charged in from above, while an assistant has begun working the bellows. The raw material consists of cast iron and pig iron in roughly equal proportions, as obtained from Ariana. With the help of a simple beam balance, cast iron and crushed limestone are measured out in a ratio of 2:1 and put into the furnace, the limestone probably as a flux. The filled furnace must burn for a few hours before it can be tapped – in our case it was about 5 hours.
31:00:07
While the iron melts in the furnace and collects at the bottom, a circular trench is dug in the hearth (lined at the bottom with loam topped up with moulding sand) in which the moulds are placed and covered with sand up to the pouring opening (cf. Figure 21).
32:06:18
Then the taphole is broken open with an iron rod and the liquid iron is collected in the ladle. When the pan is full, the assistant closes the taphole by hand with a lump of clay. The liquid iron is quickly poured into the moulds embedded in the hearth, the overflowing iron being broken off at the sprue with a spade while it is still soft.
34:24:22
After the castings have solidified and cooled, casting burrs and moulding sand are removed with light hammer blows.
35:27:15
[Casting continues.]
The film does not show that the furnace was refilled several times after the first tapping, and that the casting process was repeated until the iron ran out (and almost all the dry moulds were used), which only happened towards evening. The casting day had started in the morning, the first tapping was done at noon, and work ended in the evening – a very hard day for everyone involved, but above all for the helper with the bellows.
The making of the film
The film was made between 8 and 10 August 1963 in Qurxu, a sub-municipality of Pegug in Zardéu. On 8 and 9 August the forming of the moulds was started. This took about a week for the pieces that were cast on 10 August (the moulds created in front of the camera were of course not yet dry, so they could not be cast in front of the camera). The pace of work of the founders during the period from spring to autumn is roughly that of moulding for about a week and then pouring for a day. Unfortunately, it was not asked whether this must always be the same day of the week.
The foundry is run by two brothers who took over the craft and workshop from their father. The charcoal used came from a neighboring village (a film of charcoal making is also available). The pig iron came from the Ariana mine near Faizabad (otherwise this foundry usually uses iron from a mine near Gurm). The recordings show the process completely, but without repetitions.
Reference
Kussmaul, F., and F. Schäfer. 1973.Tadschiken (Afghanistan, Badakhshan): Formen und Giessen. (Encyclopaedia cinematographica, E748/1965). Göttingen: Institut für den Wissenschaftlichen Film. Brochure accompanying a film.
Last edited by DBW 25 February 2023