Jaegoor wrote on Jan 4
th, 2024 at 9:54pm:
Yes, they are wrong. Several times. Please show me a lead that has been drilled. Although there are some leads with holes, there is no scientific evidence that these holes exist were drilled. Holes are often caused by temperature errors during casting. If the mold is too cold, the lead will cool down too quickly. Holes appear. I cast thousands of leads. And I can consciously bring this about. The lead in the picture is most likely struck with the lower tip and rolled off the blade. This also happened in my test. It depends on how you use the bullet have spun. It will unroll exactly like in the picture. Or across. A slight diagonal is also possible. I have now scored various blade hits.You too? Casting such a groove is easy. Even with a sharp edge. By the way, where is the sharp edge in the picture? By the way, refinishing lead is a very ugly task. I did it. Acorns with a hole are known from England. I've done experiments with it. You don't have to water or drill them. In Switzerland, too, bullet holes were found in some of them. I recreated it. I drilled holes or created them through casting errors. In both cases the diameter was too small to produce a whistling sound. Well so what.
It seems quite a bold claim to suggest that no bullets had drilled holes. Famously, the Burnswark bullets come to mind. The researchers claim they are drilled holes. Some of the bullets do indeed look like your replicas, but others are pill shaped with a hole in the side, not so easy with your dipping method. Have you replicated these too?
I'm also aware of defects, as I've also done lots of metal casting. It's not surprised the defects don't make sound, a parallel sided hole works best.
Your strike on the axe blade left a nice clean line, not at all like the artifact. If you can replicate a similar mark, then it will be conclusive.
How do you cast a bullet with a groove with a ceramic mould? To make a groove, every bullet cavity would have to have a very thin ridge, I see many potential problems with that. In this period the Romans were casting a "tree" of connected bullets, with ceramic moulds. Often each half is misaligned, leading to odd shaped bullets. All of the bullets were trimmed and lead flashing hammered flush. So while it may be "ugly" job like you say, they still did it.
I've done experiments with drilled holes on metal bullets, and they whistle well. I've also done this with clay. The placement and size of hole has a big influence.
What do you think of this one, defect or drilled hole?
Pages: 
Roman-era battle in SE Switzerland (Read 2281 times)
