Anyone make there own mokume-gane?

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Frontier Forge

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Aug 25, 2002
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I want to try some diffusion mokume, the siplified instrucions were to select metal of similar size(gauge) and melting points. Make a metal sandwich place s/s foil at each side place the sandwich in 1/4 steel clamping rig with s/s bolt holding and pressing it together heat in forge or heat treat oven untill edges apear wet/sweaty. Now my main question is copper melts at 1981 f , brass @ 1750f but if i want a white metal say nickel it melts at 2651 opposed to silver which is 1761. Silver has a higher $ tag, but will nickel work and if so what specific type.....My metal sandwich is constructed of multiple layers of 26 gauge(.016) and a size of 3x8. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
thanks Bob M
 
I haven't tried this as of yet, but these are directions that Delbert Ealy was kind enough to share with me.
Make a set of plate 3/8 x 2 x 6 out of S/S drill 6 holes 3/8. Start with a stack of 72 of 30-gauge copper and nickel. The key here is cleanliness. Heat plates first, this will cause oxidation on them so they will not weld to the billet. Flux outside of billet place in plates, torque bolts to 100 foot pounds, insert into the forge in a reduced atmosphere that set a 1700 to 1800 degrees, for 10 to 12 minutes. I will be trying this procedure shortly.
 
I have made some mokume. The site that Mike linked to is good. Also try these:
one
two
and a great book here: book

Here is a pic of what i did:

bowie3.jpg


I used copper and nickel silver, which gives the gold and silver colors. I got some material from McMurray Metals, they were great to deal with and cheap also. Here is their link McMurray

I used two 1/2 x 4 x 6 inch thick ss plates with 1/2 inch bolts in each corner. Oxidized the plates and then sandwiched the copper and nickle silver in between. Brought them upto temp in the forge slowly until the copper started to sweat. Then yank it out and let cool.

Like IG said, cleanliness is the key! I steel wooled all mating surfaces until bright and then cleaned them with acetone before stacking the billet. When using diferent alloys, what ever they may be, the one with the lowest melting point is the critical one. You must always have that one next to any alloy with a higher melting point in order to get fusion.

Hope this helps.
 
If you want a "white" metal I would suggest using nickel silver, also call german silver. It melts at 1960f and copper melts at 1981f, the proper fusing temp for this mix is 1875f. at that temp it will fuse without melting into a puddle. copper puddles in the bottom of your forge are not fun. You can also use brass, but you have to be careful how you stack the billet. Brass melts at 1706f, so make sure brass is sandwiched between every layer, indeed if you were to use fine silver you would need to do the same, given its lower melting temp. You will also have to watch the temp on either of these metals. I would recommend nickel silver and copper. Feel free to email me or call if you have any further questions. I will be giving a lecture and demonstration on the making of mokume gane next month in traverse city michigan.
 
How tricky is copper and brass, given the spread between their melting points?
 
Do you smithies ever forge mokume after you've made it? Maybe to get patterns in it like you do damascus, or just to shape a guard? Would the repeated heating mess it up?
 
I have forged mokume to get the patterns in it. I have done a twist and a ladder pattern. I use copper and nickel silver in my mokume, so when it starts to show some color in the forge, I work it on the anvil. You just have to be carefull so you don't have a melt down.

For me, I work damascus steel very hot and around 10 psi on the propane burner. For mokume, it is less than 5 psi. For one I need less heat, and two, my pieces of mokume are a lot smaller than my billets of damascus.

The stuff moves very easy under the hammer, so it does not take much to forge it. Even if you did not work it hot, but instead cold worked it, you would still have to anneal it to get rid of the cold working effects.

Just as long as you don't take it to a light orange, you should be ok. Plus by using a low heat (psi) in the forge you can see when it is about to melt down and hopefully take it out of the forge before it become a puddle. Trust me I know:D
 
I haven't built a forge yet. Gonna make some mokume in my heat treat oven, it's digitally controlled so I can set the temps and get em right where I want tme.
I've been thinking about using it to do some small forging, too.
I saved some L6 scraps from a couple bowies I cut out the other day. Just little pieces, like 3" long and 1/2" wide. I think they would make some neat little blades, maybe some finns. I was thinking about setting my oven at 1400 and the timer at an hour and putting all 4 pieces of L6 in and once they're hot, pull one out, work it till it cools, then put it back in and get another hot chunk and work that one. Just keep repeating the process till I have all 4 shaped.
It's probably not really a good idea. I was just thinking of doing it as a change of pace and also to see if I like forging before I put the time and money into a propane forge.
 
A propaneforge can be built for very little cash.

Check here for burner design

And here for and idea on a small forge.

There are also palns out there for a mini forge that uses a propane torch.

My forge is just stacked brick and Ron Reil's ez burner. Works great!
 
Hey L6,

Been trying my hand at doing some small billets of mokume with the red bronze you sent me a while back. As soon as I get a nice patterned piece I will be sending you some.

What a lot of people don't realize about the diffusion process is the fact that both parent metals form an alloy in between the layers when fired in an oven/kiln/forge. That alloy layer will always melt at a lower temperature than the two parent metals and can cause havoc when trying to hot forge the billet.
I do think it is much easier to cold forge and be very careful when annealing the piece.
 
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