[TheForge] mokume- gane

[Jerry Frost]

I've done quarter mokume for fun and class demos. Don't worry about copper 
in your forge, I haven't found any metal contaminants that prevent forge 
welding even though most of the old books warn about it. This process is 
properly called "difussion welding" just like forge welding. I won't get 
into what's going on with HOT electrons and valence shells but it's pretty 
cool.

My method is simple, I made a 4 bolt clamp, two pieces of 1/4" strap stock 
with 1/4" holes in the corners with just enough clearance to lay quarters 
between the bolts. The next step isn't necessary but I give the quarters a 
good solid smack on the anvil to flatten the strikings "face and obverse 
features" to increase the initial contact area. Next I clamp a stack in the 
clamp good and solid, a bit shy of stripping the bolts is a tad much but if 
you can get away with it, tighter is better.

Nest pop it in the forge and bring it to a sweatin heat, the sides of the 
stack will look just on the verge of liquidity though it's a way from 
liquidus. It'll be a little shimmery and look wet. You can take two courses 
at this point, you can pull it out and smack it, I use a small block on the 
anvil and a set hammer so I don't hit the bolts. The other course is to just 
let it sit and sweat. Something that does help but isn't necessary is a very 
light dusting of borax between the coins.

Do keep a close eye on the stack when it starts getting close to sweating 
heat, sure it's below liquidus but not a lot, I know I have puddles of 
nickle/copper under the floor of my forge. Now, how you manipulate the 
billet to control the pattern is your turn to experiment and let us know how 
things work please. As a start, you can fold and refuse for a random 
pattern. You can grind or drill depressions and forge flat to gring out the 
lamina. One I like is rolling it "jelly roll" fashion and after fusing it 
into a solid billet flatten it on end, this can give you some really dool 
spiral patterns. You can invert the cut and drill method by forging the 
billet into depressions to raise a pattern and then grinding it flat.

There are all komds of things you can do to mokume for effects. The most 
knowledgeable person I know personally is Jim Binnion and he can be 
contacted with a simple search online. http://mokume-gane.com Tell him I 
sent ya, not that it'll do you any good but it shouldn't hurt . . . too 
much. <grin> Deb and I wear wedding bands by Him, White gold, red gold, 
yellow gold and silver, in a twist pattern. He formed the billet, twisted it 
then sawed it in half so Deb and my ring are mirror patterns of the exact 
same pattern, like sawing a bord and flipping the halves.

Range around his site and you'll see some truly amazing examples of mokume 
gane, one of my favorites is the pure iron and gold tea pot.

Jer
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Dan Scheid" <damales at pollybutte.net>
To: "'Blacksmithing List Sponsored by ABANA'" <theforge at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Tuesday, August 07, 2012 9:40 PM
Subject: [TheForge] mokume- gane


>
>
> I have been welding lamented steel (Damascus )  for going on over 20 
> years.
> And I thought of doing Mokume gane. I read that you can use US quarters as
> your start press, heat, then weld  but could not find anything about if it
> needs flux. Anyone got a link or a book on a simple start for  mokume 
> game?
> Thanks
> Dan Scheid
>