Designating moulding sand as first on the list, other important moulding materials are named as follows:

(2) Fire clay is a pure clay (oxide of aluminum) much used when mixed with water as a plastic refractory material for patching ladle and cupola linings, and for use in moulding.

(3) Clay wash or clay water is a thin mixture of fire clay and water. It is added to moulding sand mixtures (particularly loam mixtures) to give them the necessary plasticity. It is also used to wet sticks, nails, iron rods, core irons, etc., imbedded in moulds and cores to make sand adhere to them, thus strengthening the body of the mould.

(4) Common red bricks are used to make the body of loam moulds and to fill up remote spaces in large dry sand moulds. They are piled evenly in the spaces they occupy, and afford porosity.

(5) Parting sand is sprinkled on the joints or partings of moulds, as between the cope and the drag, to keep the two parts of the mould from sticking at the joint. Any fine-grained non-plastic material, such a brick dust, silica sand, ground cinders, etc., may be used.

(6) Slurry is clay wash and fine moulding sand mixed thick. It is used as the first smooth coating over the rough loam surface of a loam mould.

(7) Cinders from completely burned coal are used in venting to assist the porosity of large cores and sand projections in moulds, and are placed under large moulds to receive and convey gases from the moulds.

(8) Blacking and sleeking mixtures are used as a final smooth coating over the surface of a mould after the pattern is withdrawn. These are known as mould facings, facing mixtures, etc. They give a smooth surface to the casting. Some mixtures contain molasses, stale beer, or other viscous substances, to prevent the sand of the mould washing away when metal is poured. Facings of powdered slaty coal, charcoal, graphite, soapstone, or ground silica, are dusted on the faces of green sand moulds from small muslin bags. These are applied wet, with a brush, to dry sand and dried loam moulds, and are slicked when nearly dry to make a smooth glossy surface.

(9) Flour, stale beer, oil, and molasses are used to increase the tenacity of sand in moulds. A more important feature of flour is that it chars when metal is poured into the mould, allowing core sand to disintegrate and crush as the casting contracts in cooling. Flour paste and putty are used to make a tight joint between a core and its bearing.

(10) Oil is used to coat large patterns in loam moulding to keep the loam from sticking to the pattern.

(11) Loose or chopped straw and dry horse manure are used in loam moulds to increase porosity, and straw rope is wound on "core barrels," or large metal pipes, which are then covered with loam and dried for use as cores for moulding large water and gas-main piping.

The moulder applies the name of sharp sand or fire sand to silica or any other kind of gritty, non-adhesive sand. Burnt sand is a sand which has lost its tenacity by having been highly heated next to a casting in the mould. Burnt sand must have new sand mixed with it to fit it for moulding, though the worst of it is thrown away.

Loose sand and refuse must not be allowed to accumulate about the foundry floor.

It will be seen that many of these materials are to assist one or more of the three essentials, a, b, c, mentioned in the preceding paragraph, for moulding sands.