Making Mokume from 1010, 1085 and copper

[ArielSalaverria]

Hey folks,

I'm almost done remodeling my shop, so I'm taking 15 days off that tedious work to keep making new knives and fullfill some orders. I'll be posting more finished knives and process pictures soon!

I've been asked how I made a mokume using iron, steel and copper, so here it is!


One clarification before I start, though. I'm referring to 1010 as "iron" because of its low content of Carbon. The proper term for it in English would be Low-Carbon Steel.

If I'm mistaking terms here, please a fellow knifemaker correct me

The concept between this is to use steels with different Carbon content, as that will make the difference in the final colors after etching, just as on a regular damascus blade.


The first pictures are a recreation. I just took some pics to clarify this process, as I didn't take any of those stages when I was really making it.


First I bend a 0.8mm thickness piece of steel into a "U" shape. If you use a galvanized or stainless steel plate you can remove the resulting mokume piece more easily. I just use a regular steel and then grind it off.




Then I fill that space with 0.3mm thickness layers of 1010 and 1085, alternating them. Not too tight as I need space for the copper to get in between.




After that, I place a lot of borax on top of the layers and place some pieces of copper there. (Remember this is a recreation, so I didn't actually place borax there for the picture)




Then I take that to the oven at 1200C and when I see the copper gets into liquid state and flows in the spaces between the steel layers, I add more copper pieces to ensure this melted metal fills in all the free spaces between the 1010 and 1085 layers.

After I've attained that, I took it off the oven and press it on the hidraulic press.

(When you rotate the U shaped piece with the melted copper between the steel layers you won't spill it all as it's not that much liquid and due to superficial tension it tends to remain there)

When pressed, some copper will drip away, but it's not much.


This is a piece of the resulting ingot, after pressing it and cut to aprox desired size.




Now this is how it looks after I take that piece and grind some section and etch it like regular damascus to show the contrast generated by the different materials.




This is a final piece of this mokume, ready to be used for whatever piece you want to make out of it.






And this beautiful guard is what knifemaker and friend Ruben Calo made out of it!







I hope this helps, any further questions, please don't hessitate making them!

Regards,

Ariel

[CUTS LIKE A KRIS]

Thanks a lot from a newbie!!!

[Phillip Patton]

Very cool process. What kind of oven are you using, and what kind of atmosphere in the oven? The few times I've tried to melt copper i was happy to escape with my health.

[Sweany]

I Like That A Lot !

[Burchtree]

You never cease to amaze me -- fantastic work. Ruben did a great job of utilizing the mokume with his guard too.

[David Schott]

Awesome! I am going to try that.

[Tracer-san]

Phillip,

dunno if this helps, but you can see Ariel's oven in some pictures on this page:
http://www.aescustomknives.com.ar/docs/aboutme.htm

[Daniel Koster]

neat mokume and nice guard!

[howiesatwork]

Nice work as usual, Ariel!

[bennett]

That is awesome! I also liked the coppered damascus push dagger you made. It's been some time ago, but the tutorial was excellent. I have to say, however, that THIS is much cooler!

[Darrel Ralph]

Very nice.
I used to make that material in the 90's.
Great looking stuff.
Try gun bluing it!

[rhrocker]

Always a thrill to read through one of your posts! Many thanks.

[btboone]

Great looking stuff. I might need to try that in my "spare time."

[deker]

Looks fantastic, but you would really use something galvanized for the container? Isn't that just asking to get sick or worse?

-d

[Bruce Bump]

Thanks Ariel. Very interesting. Thanks for sharing.

Ariel can this same thing be done in a regular cannister with a lid and not need to use flux?

[Will52100]

Cool, I like it, may have to try something like it sometime.

[ArielSalaverria]

Thanks for the kind words, gentlemen!

Bruce, yes it can certainly can, that's how I used to make it when I hammered it instead of using a press

Ariel

[J.Marsillo]

Thanks for sharing your talents your work is amazing too

[M Wadel]

very nice indeed. just a question is it possible to make mokume with copper and stainless steel? or wont it work because of the chromium, need higher temps?

[R.Coon-Knives]

Originally Posted by Darrel Ralph

Very nice.
I used to make that material in the 90's.
Great looking stuff.
Try gun bluing it!

Cold bluing??