Hello! I was in a rather in depth conversation with one of my blacksmith friends the other day and the subject of cannon construction came up. I was wondering if there is any websites out there that may have information about how bronze cannons were cast during the renaissance? Don't worry i have NO intentions of even thinking about trying to make one myself. I enjoy being among the living too much for that!

For such sorts of industrial processes, at some point one must certainly turn to Diderot's Encyclopédie.

There are a number of plates and accompanying text (albeit in French) which detail the casting of cannon of that era, just following the Renaissance.

http://artflx.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/philologic...opedie0110

Hello Chris,
I found what seems to be a digested version of the text of the Diderot work Eric referred to, en anglais:
http://www.melfisher.org/cannonsurvey/castguns.htm

My French isn't good enough to check the briefer English version against the Diderot for accuracy, but it seems to jive with the illustration plates.

I would assume that cast cannons were made pretty much exactly the same way as bronze bells were made:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bellfounding

Find Bert Hall's Renaissance Warfare or Smith and DeVries Artillery of the Dukes of Burgundy.

They were made in many ways over time. Cast Bronze, then barreled iron and later cast iron.

RPM

Thank you all very much! This gives me much more insight into the process and it helped me settle the debate with my friends!