Making Tsuba material at home ?

[quint]

So quick question for those guys who make there own castings and primarily repurpose things like brass and copper and what not. I saw a video where they took there mix of silver/copper and poured it into a pot of water. I think there was a plate or something in the water or maybe it was just the bottom of the pan not sure. He ended up with a nice disk of the copper mix that was relatively flat and uniform.

I would like to get more of a bar shape and maybe some of the round shapes like what he got pouring it into the water pan. Just curious how you guys like to go about doing this for those that have.

I have some carbon blocks I could carve and use as well, was thinking these may be good for getting flat bars as I could carve a reliefe into them.

Anyways appreciate any suggestions on this subject.

 

[9blades]

*not a knife maker*
But I stumbled across this thread and I'm curious. I would assume that there was no water in the pot, because at the temperature silver and copper melt (around 1700°F and 1950°F IIRC) water would vaporize....I would be very interested in hearing how they make the castings though:thumbup:

 

[tattooedfreak]

You need to use way more water than the amount of melt you are doing. There is some vaporization but the volume of water takes enough of the heat away to harden the melt enough to form a disk. This is where I saw it done first http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGMj7o6AwnM at around 2:40.

 

[Bill Burke]

the pan was full of scalding hot water. inside there is a wire rack holding a several layers of cloth something like denim. puor the molton metal into the water so that it forms into the shallow bowl formed by the denim. this method creates a nice tight grained alloy. after cooling you will have to forge the resulting disk before rolling into sheet or it will crack as it is rolled. silver and copper is what the Japanese call shibuichi.

 

[quint]

Thanks, thats the video I was actually referring to.

Bill that is great info, appreciate it.