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Metal Casting Workshop & Pour on the Shore coming to the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum

ST. MICHAELS, Md., – The Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum is offering guests the opportunity to experience traditional iron casting at its Shipyard in November, through its Metal Casting Workshop and Pour on the Shore events, presented in partnership with locally-based cast iron cookware manufacturer Butter Pat Industries.

“We are excited to expand our Shipyard metal casting programming alongside Butter Pat Industries,” CBMM Shipyard Education Programs Manager Jenn Kuhn said. “The Pour on the Shore events highlight this unique process with the hands-on workshop, Sip & Scratch event, and a live iron pour demonstration. We hope that folks will join in the fun. There really is something for everyone.”

“The history of metal casting is intricately linked with that of the maritime industry,” Butter Pat Industries Founder Dennis Powell said. “What better way to learn about it than to get our hands dirty at this incredible working Shipyard, where past remains prologue.”

The five-day Metal Casting Workshop is designed to teach participants the art of casting iron using the traditional green sand and lost wax investment methods. It will be held Nov. 12-13 and 18-20 at CBMM and led by Christian Benefiel, a visiting master, sculptor, and Director of Welding and Fabrication at Chesapeake College, who has been casting and fabricating large sculptures for more than 20 years.

The first two days of the course will focus on a casting demonstration, pattern, mold making and furnace prep. On day three, participants will work on green sand and sodium silicate molding, and day four involves furnace set up and pouring metal. On the final day of the workshop, students will unpack their molds and clean up the castings.

The cost for this course is $1,000, with a 20 percent discount for CBMM members, and includes all required materials. Interested participants can email Kuhn at [email protected] for information about scholarship opportunities.

CBMM is also partnering with Butter Pat Industries on a pair of Pour on the Shore events on campus next month designed to highlight iron casting.

The first is Sip & Scratch Night on Nov. 11, beginning at 5:30 p.m., featuring a short presentation, beverages, light hors d’oeuvres, and an opportunity to carve your own unique designs into a sand mold to be cast in iron.

The following week on Nov. 19, these carvings become the vessel into which molten iron will be poured during a live iron demonstration to be held in the Shipyard, beginning at noon with the pour held between 4-7 pm. Registration is not required for this demonstration, hosted by visiting masters, CBMM shipwrights, and Metal Casting Workshop program participants, and attendance is free with general CBMM admission.

In addition, Butter Pat Industries is hosting a Parking Lot Party on Nov. 12 from 3-5pm at its Easton, Md., warehouse in conjunction with Pour on the Shore and the town’s annual Waterfowl Festival. The free event includes fire-cooked oysters, refreshments, and an inventory sale, with all sizes of cast iron in-stock at a 10 percent discount.

The Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum is a non-profit educational organization dedicated to preserving and exploring the history, environment, and culture of the entire Chesapeake Bay region, and making this resource available to all.

Butter Pat Industries is a design-oriented manufacturer of cast iron cookware that believes beauty can still be part of utility. Its designs are inspired by historic sources but enabled by new technologies, with foundrymen and designers, artists and engineers in Pennsylvania, Virginia and Maryland’s Eastern Shore.

More information: cbmm.org