[TheForge] Mokume Gane

[James Binnion]

Hi Grant,

	Brass/ Cu can be a difficult laminate to forge. Many brasses 
are hot short and can cause problems and if you don't buy it as a 
known alloy you cannot tell by looking at it how well it will work. 
Someone mentioned nickle silver as a good material but there are many 
alloys of nickle silver and most are hot short as well so it is best 
to buy from a supplier who provides alloy by specification not just a 
generic brass or nickle silver. The Copper Nickle alloy family offer 
more hot formable alloys than the Nickle Silver alloys. For standard 
cartridge brass (C2600 , 70% Cu/30% Zn) my practice is to use flat 
dies and fairly low temps like 1100 F till I have a 50 % reduction 
After that I can use gentle radius (6") fullering dies to draw it out 
or roll it. The higher the Zinc content the harder it is to hot work 
until you get to Muntz metal which is a beta brass and is a different 
critter.  I have good luck with low brass alloys like commercial 
bronze (C2200, 90% Cu/10%Zn) in teaching beginners as it is much more 
forgiving.

For data all kinds of data on the copper alloys (copper, brass, 
bronze, copper nickle and nickle silver) go to 
http://www.copper.org/resources/properties/homepage.html you will be 
able to look up families of alloys in the Standard Designations for 
Copper and Copper Alloys - Wrought and Cast.  section  and the 
fabrication properties (hot workability is listed here) and all other 
properties of individual alloys once you get the alloy number from 
the Standard Designation section in the Properties of Wrought and 
Cast Copper Alloys section.

-- 
Jim Binnion

James Binnion Metal Arts
Phone (360) 756-6550
Toll Free (877) 408 7287
Fax (360) 756-2160
http://www.mokume-gane.com
jbin at mokume-gane.com
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