The foundry
Seven stations, one building, in a village that has cast bronze for generations
Dong Quy is a bronze-casting village in Nam Truc district, Nam Dinh province, about 90 km south-east of Ha Noi. The sequence below is the village method, run as a production line rather than a demonstration for visitors.
Pattern
Wooden or resin pattern taken from the catalogue form, your drawing, or a 3D print of your file. The pattern is the part we keep for your repeat orders.
Mould
Green-sand moulds for volume; lost-wax where there are undercuts, fine relief or portrait modelling that sand cannot hold.
Melt & pour
Alloy charged and poured hot enough to fill thin relief without cold shuts. Wall thickness 5 mm, 8 mm where the piece carries load.
Fettling
Runners cut off, seams dressed, surfaces filed back by hand. This is the step that separates a solid casting from a rough one, and the one cheap suppliers shorten.
Chasing
Pattern work sharpened with chisel and punch. Detail a mould alone cannot hold is cut in at this station — dragon scales, feathers, lettering edges.
Finish
Antique patina, reinforced patina, polished bronze, or cloisonné enamel; lacquered where the piece will live outdoors or by the sea.
Inspect & pack
Dimensions, weight and colour checked against the order and photographed, then foam-wrapped, cartoned and crated for sea freight.
What you are actually buying
Solid casting, not sheet metal
Much of what is sold as “bronze décor” is spun or pressed sheet with a bronze-coloured finish. It is lighter, cheaper and easy to dent. Our pieces are poured solid at 5 mm wall, 8 mm where a foot, a handle or a crane's leg carries weight, which is why a size-65 altar set weighs about 36 kg rather than a third of that. Your customer will feel the difference before they read the specification.
Hand casting also carries tolerance, and we would rather publish ours than argue about it after your container lands. Across a five-piece set, ±1–3 cm is normal. More than 5 cm on a single piece is a fault and we re-cast it. What matters more than any absolute figure is proportion: the cranes should stand 5–7 cm taller than the censer and the candlesticks 12–15 cm shorter, so the set reads correctly on a shelf.
Visiting
The workshop is about two hours by car from Ha Noi and can be combined with our showrooms in Nam Dinh, Ha Noi and Hai Phong. Buyers who cannot travel can ask for filmed inspection of their order before it ships, or appoint a third-party inspector — we have no objection to either.
Straight answer
We do not hold BSCI, ISO or similar third-party audit certificates, and we will not claim them. If your buying programme requires an audited supplier, tell us at the enquiry stage and we will say plainly whether we can meet it rather than waste your time.