Mokume Gane by Daniel Houwer

Daniel Houwer

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Dmitry asked for this.
Hope you will like it too. Nothing to do with engraving though :(

Mokume gane can be made with most metals though mokume gane tends to use the non ferric ones.
I am sure you have seen better and nicer rings somewhere else, but this is just a simple way to make rings like this and if you don't want to make rings you can make a nice material for bolsters or other things to make you product more special.

Mokume Gane wedding bands with 3 colours gold and silver.

This is going to be a pretty long story. A lot of work to with a lot of steps.
I have to make 2 mokume wedding rings with 18 yellow, 14 red and white gold and silver.
3 Pieces of octagonal 3mm and 50mm long in gold are bought.


These pieces have been milled flat to 5mm wide and 2 thick. After making them fat and oxide free ( by using waterproof sandpaper under the tap) I have bound them together with titanium wire for the first fusion or weld.

The titanium wire is mostly to bind the package together when the borax settles. A screw clamp could be used as well.

When the package is red hot sometimes squeezing with a pincer helps to get the layers together. When all the layers are together and the package is hot enough you can see a glimmer between the layers just as when solder is running. Take your flame away and wait until the glimmers go dull. Then quench in water.
 

Daniel Houwer

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Mar 21, 2007
Messages
239
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The package is now pickled and weighed.

After that the package is forged before milling. You can also start milling right away but for a better crystal structure it is better to give it a once over with the hammer.

After the forging and anealing (red hot will do it so dull the lights) pickle and you can start milling. If you reach the wanted lengt and thichkness and ofcourse width you can cut it into 2 or 3 pieces (or more) and add some silver strips in between the layers. I have now three layers so I will add 2 silver layers just as long and just as wide as the other ones.
 

Daniel Houwer

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After fusing again you have a package of 11 layers. Then you flatten the sides where you can see the sides of the layers. This shows you the layers and if you have them the flaws. This is quite important because you have to see each layer separately to get the best result when manipulating a pattern.
 

Daniel Houwer

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Looking at the scale it should be obvious that a lot of material is getting lost in the process.

After a good beating with a hammer (keep it square), anealing and further forging or milling it will be ready to turn.


Put one side into the vice and the other into a (I don’t know what this is called in englisch) thing/gadget. Turn it around for 1 and a half turn. Aneal then and turn further if you want. If you don’t aneal a piece will break off. I thought I could turn further than the metal did. A piece did break off weighing 1.2 grams.
 

Daniel Houwer

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Messages
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This is the piece that broke off with me.

The screw thread I just made I file off until a square bar is left. You could only flatten one side or three because the inside wil probably never be seen again. In this case one side of the piece is not filed off.
 

Daniel Houwer

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Mar 21, 2007
Messages
239
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Holland

After squaring and sanding the sides the pattern shows pretty clearly.

The rod can be forged or milled into a halfround shape. My mill will do the trick.


The half round profile is now just above 4mm and about 3mm thick.
 

Daniel Houwer

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Dmitry,

For tonight I think I am through. Is this enough information for you or do you want the last steps for wedding bands as well. As I do not think they will interest you I will save my time and make some pictures of the process whenn I make a copper and silver mokume. Or whenn I find the time to find the picture of formar mokume things.
http://www.zilvermaan.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=455 if you want to see the rest. Hope the pictures speak for themselves.
Thank you for showing interest on mokume and espessially on my way of doing it. There are a lot of ways to approach this technique. Allso easally available on the internet. Making mokume with gold is much easyer than with non precious metals. Copper and silver are pretty easy whenn you keep you metals fat free. Sand them down under the tap and whenn all the water flushes over the surface of the metal the metal is fat free and ready to be fused to another fatfree metal. Use a lot of borax and keep the borax on the places where it needs to be at the time of fusing. (that meens everywhere!!!) Between copper you could use sterling sliver as a solder and get a very nice package to work with.

Again, there is a lot of info on the web on mokume. This is just my limited way of getting a laminate together.

Greetings,

Daniel
 

Daniel Houwer

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Mar 21, 2007
Messages
239
Location
Holland
Oh, just one thing,
Silver and copper give a very nice contrast and are pretty easy to fuse together and at a reasonable cost.
I have posted some pictures somewhere of a twisted laminate of silver and copper. Could be on Steve Lindsay's site thoug. Just remember to work clean and with a lot of borax or other flux in the temperature range of fusing.

greetings,

Daniel.
 

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