feather mokume gane?

A.McPherson

A.McPherson

Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
Joined
Jan 27, 2012
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Howdy folks!
I'm going to visit a Jeweler friend of mine next week and he's agreed to show me how to make Mokume Gane... so I was thinking (always a problem really). since Mokume Gane is similar to damascus, could you make feather pattern MG?

if anyone has any insights they would be appreciated! also if anyone has a good tutorial on how to make feather damascus, that would be fab too!
Thanks!!
 
I don't see why it wouldn't work. I think it would look awesome too.

I've made a few pieces of mokume but only random pattern. I may have to try this next!
 
Go ahead and try, but my gut is it won't work.

The problem is that mokume isn't forge welded .... and feather pattern damascus is. The way the weld forms in mokume is diffusion welding. This is done under pressure, without any oxygen, and at a very specific temperature. If you tried to make a feather cut, it wouldn't weld back together after the cut. I suppose you could make the cut all the way through, sand and flatten the surfaces, and try to re-join them in the oven again, but the pattern may get shifted if it will work at all.
 
Forge welding also works through diffusion bonding. The difficulty with doing feather pattern would be for the reasons Stacy is giving, however, simply that mokume is temperamental. It would be very difficult but not impossible.
 
Could a reasonable facsimile be made by splitting a stack and soldering it back together?
 
Damn that's gorgeous.

I imagine splitting it, cleaning it, and clamping it the same way the initial stack was made should work no? Maybe easier in a kiln with temperature control?
 
That stuff is beautiful. Looks like the OP got the answer. Please post results if you’re successful.
 
kuraki said:
Damn that's gorgeous.

I imagine splitting it, cleaning it, and clamping it the same way the initial stack was made should work no? Maybe easier in a kiln with temperature control?
Click to expand...
I think that it would work how you described. I found the forge easy enough to make mokume. Just keep an eye on the billet and take it out when it starts to sweat.
 
That's super cool S.Alexander, thanks for sharing!! Just goes to show that there's nothing new under the sun, eh?
 
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