Mokume?

amacks

amacks

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Oct 13, 1998
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I have seen knives for sale with Mokume for handles and bolsters, but never an explanation of the material. It appears to be some other metal than steel patternwelded, but what exactly is it, and why use it instead of steel?
Aaron
 
Mokume is a japenese word meaning wood.

Mokume, has been used as a word to describe a method of fusing non ferrous (non iron containing) metals together.

It is sorta the same kind of principal as patern welding it just doesnt use a flux or require so much pressure to get the layers to fuse..

Mokume mainly contains metals of a copper or nicle base, with different melting temperatures. They are cleaned, stacked and put into a screw press and submited to heat.
When the metals reach a temperature where they are almost liquid, they will fuse, a few degrees too hot and they will liquify and alloy versus fusing and remaining in noticable layers..

This is just some meathod and explaination and background, if you have any further or in depth questions please ask I may be able to explain in more detail...

Hope it helps, Alan Folts
 
Mokume is a laminated material with two or more different metals.It can be gold,silver,copper, Nickel silver, brass bronze and some more I cann't think of. You stack the stuff up and either silver solder them together or use the fuse them together that is heating them up wear they are at melting temp, it is like welding. After they are together you use it like patternwelded steel to make your patterns
 
Alan's is better then mine. hey I started mine before you. You must type faster than me
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You can thank my high school touch typing teacher for that one..
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You ever make mokume, any secrets?

I am always looking for an easier way...
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Alan Folts
 
The best advice I ever got was KEEP THE SHEETS SURGICALLY CLEAN! Wipe with acetone & wear gloves while stacking.
Once in the press plates & heating, watch for "sweat" to begin forming on the edges, pull from the heat, and give it a couple "light" raps of the hammer to insure a solid weld.
(Thanks to one Randal Graham!)
 
Hello all!

The correct japanese expression is mokumé gané, which means wood pattern, for obvious reason. David, the "e" in both words is not silent.
To make it even more difficult, the japanese have several different etching solutions and for every colour etching effect there is a different word.
They also use compositions from metals for single layers in mokumé gané which are completely unknown in the west. For example shakudo is a metal made from 95 % copper and 5 % gold. It looks like shiney copper but doesn't get green but black when oxydizing.

Achim
 
Well,

It looks like wonderful stuff, and seems like a reasonably affordable way to dress up a knife a little more than plain NS or SS, but not as much as mosiac bolsters or blades. My question is how is the stuff to work with? Can it be filed and sanded to shape, or must it be left in it's original billet form to retain its surface texturing and color variation. How hard is it (on average, I know it depends on what it's made of) How well does it wear on a using knife, and finally, How much would it cost to put 1x1x14 bolsters on a blade?

Thanks
James


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The easiest way I have found to make it is
Make a furnace press Two peices of steel say 1/2 in thick with holes in line all the way around the fixture. Then fill is withcopper and nickel, or whatever you want as you contrasting material. Heat in a reductucing forge atmosphere untill the sides of the metal look like the starting to bubble(this is a very small change.. The put the whole fixture under the press or in a strong vise and squeeze.. Then remove and forge to flat and pattern like damascus. Anneal at bright orange color quench in water..


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[This message has been edited by Darrel Ralph (edited 02-15-2000).]
 
T.J.
As mokumé gané is made out of relatively soft metals you can forge it, drill it, file it, sand it and do all the things to it that are done to a normal pattern welded steel to have a certain pattern like raindrop, small and big rose, ladder or torsion patterns. I have seen beautiful examples of this. Surface texturing and colour variation largely depend on the etching time and etching solution you use on it. As to wear, i don't think that thats a big problem. It depends on the base materials used. But lets say you used for example brass and copper. So wear is mostly like the more stable material, brass and this is a material used on many knives without problems. Plus, i know a goldsmith very well who makes rings from gold/silver and silver/copper mokumé gané. Some of them get daily use since years and have no wear problems.

Achim
 
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