[Jewelry making - Article 00010] - [Orchid] Investment casting really heavy sections

[Peter Grieve]

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    I am trying to make a sword hilt out of sterling, and this requires
    casting a 1" diameter spherical ball for the pommel. I am a complete
    novice at this. One source said that the sprue should be as thick as
    the thickest section of the piece, in order to avoid shrinkage
    porosity. But if I connect a 1" sprue to a 1" sphere, the sprue
    removal will be quite difficult :) Is there some way around this? Is
    investment casting the wrong process for this object? 

    Forgive me if this question is too "foundry", but silver hilted
    smallswords were the men's jewelry of the 18th century! 

Thank you for your time.

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