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[sissydear]

That is how they were made, just as I said in post #22

I was trying to say in a nice way to folks who misinterpreted that you were correct. Today's sulfides are made in a mold and if you've done ceramics, you can look at the old sulfides and know that is how they were made too. The glass has the sulfide plunged into it, not made in a bullet mold. Edna

[bigjohn691500]

im pretty sure it was on one of these boards a long time ago someone explained how sulphides were made, i believe they had a machine that deposited the figure into 2 streams of molten glass, i remember the plans but do not remeber who wrote the thread, maybe bryan grahm,, were talking way back when nan ran the board,, anybody else remember this?,,,bj

[Steph]

John, that's interesting that a machine might be involved in those too, at some point. Sounds like lots of different methods may have been used.

Here are the examples Baumann gave of different ways sulphides were made:

Most common was to have one worker gather a glob of glass and another press the figure into the glob, and if any part of the figure was uncovered the edges ofwould be work the edges of the glob would be pulled around the figure. Then it would be rounded in a marver.

For larger figures a small "ampoule" might be blown, then cut open, then the figure inserted with tongs, the opening reclosed, the ball reheated to round it, and the air "aspirated" out of the bubble with the blowing iron.

The third method he mentions involved putting a figure between two globs of glass and working that into a sphere with tongs and the marver.

Here's a British war re-enactor using a real bullet-mold, and part of the reason I thought of bullet-mold marbles as handmade:

(click to enlarge)

. .

[machinemades]

I have no idea what a British war re-enactor means, but he sure is not making any marbles, maybe same kind of metal piece. Handmade marbles have pontils, not mold or cutlines. Is that really difficult to understand?

Sami

[Steph]

He's making bullets.

That's a REAL bullet mold. He is taking part in a re-enactment of some British battle. So I naively pictured marble molds as being hand-operated also. The 1880's description fit with my mental picture, and with my quick, mistaken reading of what Baumann wrote.

[I LOVE MARBLES]

Bought one of these years ago from Bert (marblebert) as a Czech guinea. It is machine made.

Scott

[Steph]

So how are they made? Does anyone know the particulars?

I guess I have been thoroughly misled by the "bullet mold" name. It makes less and less sense the more I think about the seams. The blue spot looks a tad smeared at the seam in this view but mostly the frit ends abruptly. How did it get chopped off like that?

Carole, it would still be cool to see the part which looks like a pontil.

[machinemades]

Couple things on the European bullet molds: The mold/cutline makes a whole circle around the marble, which may mean there is a two piece mold for the glass to get round up. The second thing is the glass surface looks almost like it has been polished. There are no as made imperfections, at least on the ones I have seen.

Sami