Section drawing buckle

[Latinitas]

As far as I have seen, the loop part of soldered first century buckles seems to be made from thin cast(?) metal (example) and sometimes even thin hammered metal sheet (example). The loop part of the buckle in the attached document seems to be made from solid metal but I can not see this clearly enough to be sure. In the attachement I have indicated a part of the loop with a red line. Which of the below listed section drawings is - according to your opinion - the right one? With section drawing 2 I mean a construction like this.

[PhilusEstilius]

The solid cast buckle you show in pic' 1 is not as thick as you show it to be and your picture files do indicate this, for the buckle does have a slope on its underside so I would say about one third of what your drawing shows.

[Latinitas]

The cross section in my drawing was not a representation of the cross section of the buckle in the first link, but a general example. To make it more clear I will compare two cross sections of real finds.

The buckle below has defenately been cast and its cross section at the blue line is shown in the blue square. The cross section can be called thick and its underside is flat. They did not try to save on material.


I also came across an other buckle that can be seen below. The cross section is much less thick than the previous one and its underside is not flat but has a slope on it. They saved on material this way.


The question is: which of the above mentioned possible cross sections is comparable to the cross section at the red line of this buckle (click on image to enlarge)? Is the underside of the buckle in the link flat and thus comparable to the first drawing in this post, or has the underside a slope on it and is thus comparable to the second drawing in this post?

[PhilusEstilius]

Niels.
I would think that looking at your link the shape is similar to the lower cross section picture you show thinner with a slope to it.

[Latinitas]

Thank you! I think this is the most logical too. Otherwise the buckle will be too heavy if they didn`t try to save on metal. This means that I need to find out how they made these buckles.

[PhilusEstilius]

I think that most of these buckles would have been made by centrifugal lost wax casting where a wax copy would be made, then an investment mould made around that then the wax melted out and the molten bronze thrown into the investment mould.

[Latinitas]

I can cast using piece molds and casting sand, but I do not have the equipment to centrifugal cast, so I hope it can be done using only gravity. It is an interesting thing to think how the Romans did that. Maybe they poured liquid metal in a preheated mold and then swing the mould around almost like a slinger.

I am going to start a topic to discuss how they made these buckles. I have already found this topic but as a non native speaker it is difficult to follow and the images are not visible anymore.