Our first casts were sloppy. We cooled the form by pouring water onto the hot lead. At times, if poured too early, this caused a jet of lead to burst out of the solidifying brick. Perhaps because water got between the bottom of the form and the lead, evaporated, expanded and pushed its way trough until emerging at the top? We also discovered that skimming off smelting residues had its benefits do achieving a proper pour. On the lower bar, which was our very first, we did not skim any residues off the surface of the liquid metal. An experiment.