I'm using graphite mold, if you could provide some references material it would be great, I could try the library. I don't know how hot I'm getting it but I know I can get hot enough to melt pure copper. In my original pix the top row is all pure 999 silver coins and pours easily, and creates what people call pour lines. (Excuse the dents as I play around with them, i like the feel of silver) the bottom row is all sterling silver (higher than 925 as I have mixed in 10 to 20% 999 silver. Though other than to me, it's not a big deal, as I don't plan selling any of my pours.
Update, I am not sure how I got it so wrong the last time with sterling. But I think it was becuase I am used to pouring 999 silver and expecting sterling to behave the same. Sterling harden much faster than pure silver, considering sterling and silver melting point is similar, but the differnce in pouring behaviour you won't get the nice pour lines that we can get with pure silver, well not wth Mapp gas. This time I heated the sterling in the crucible like before but when it starts to swirl I placed the crucible on top of the mold, this sucks down some of the heat from the crucible and I continue to heat the crucible and mold toghter with half the flame trained on the crucible and half on the mold. When the sterling starts swirling again, I pour the sterling keeping the flame on the sterling as I pour. The heat in the crucible is critical, as the sterling hardens almost instantly on contact. I probalably need much hotter heat source to get pour lines with sterling. But until I get some resource books Ben pm'd last week, I'll stick to what I have. I'll upload some pics later to show the differnce.
