The first six of the new eight at Kildwick are now cast…

Readers of my previous blogs will know that the Kildwick MiniRingers are a group of eight year 5 and year 6 children from our local (church) primary school.  We do a lot of ringing-related things but can’t – at the moment, anyway – learn to ring our own bells as they are not suitable (I’ll explain another day).  The project this term has been to cast some bells, using the traditional process.  We are using aluminium with its easier availability and lower melting point.

The photo shows the six cast bells.  Some of them, sadly, are hiding some more horrible blemishes on the far side from the camera…

The two still to be cast show the “cope”, made from flowerpots.  That’ll change in a future edition.

It has taken a long time to do.  We have, officially, an hour a week but , by the time we’ve got them out of school and fed them a dose of juice and biscuit, it’s only about 45 minutes.

But we now have something to show for it!  Quite a lot of parents came to see the casting – and they were volubly impressed.  I think that the kids were, too – but they tend to be less voluble.

The furnace is made from an old gas tank.  The burner (again, home made with help from YouTube) seems to get the inside nice and red.