A strip of paper with model characters written on it is pasted face down on a bar of beeswax made of refined honeycomb residue. Each character is carved in relief on the bar, and then separated to create individual pieces of beeswax characters. Beeswax had been widely used in temples to make metal objects because it transforms quickly with temperature. In another movable type casting called “sand casting,” movable wood types were used as model characters instead of beeswax characters.
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