Silver solder an cold working Mokume

fast14riot

fast14riot

Hey all, I have been researching a bit on making mokume and after reading about the limited success in quarter mokume I found a small bit of info about just silver soldering (low temp) copper and brass sheet together and cold working the billet to get the patterns. This interests me greatly as I only have a 2 brick forge with an inside diameter of only about 2" and getting a stack with a clamp in there would be tough to say the least.

What issues are involved with silver soldered mokume? Is there enough solder for the silver to show up in a final billet? Would the billet crack and delam at the solder joints? I was thinking of using .035" size sheet for this. Or am I headed down the wrong path and its actally high temp silver soldered? Info on either would be appreciated.


-Xander
 
Low temperature silver solder is OK for making billets that won't be "worked." It will delaminate if the piece is hammered, etc. It also contains very little silver.
High temperature silver solder of at least 56% silver is what you want.
 
You can "sweat solder" them together with hard silver solder, but even that tends to split apart when working the billet. If that is what you want to try, use 75% silver solder at 1450F. It is as close to the eutectic fusion in normal mokume production as you will get.

Make a clamp and clean everything well. Apply flux and stack the plates. Clamp tight. Heat evenly with a rosebud tip or large brazing tip, and don't overheat. Apply the solder and more flux until the entire outside is covered in the silver solder. You should see it being sucked into the layers as you apply it. When no more will go in, allow to slow cool. Grind the edges flush and look for any non-soldered layers. Fix them now or it will split later.

This won't make the best mokume, but it will work. You will want the wire type hard solder ( sometimes called silver brazing wire) and a good bit of it. I'd get a one ounce roll for the first try.

When shaping the mokume as a guard, you may encounter a "cold joint" or delam. Just clean that spot well and use the same silver solder to fill and seal it. After sanding away the excess, it should look fine.
 
Thanx Stacy and Bill. I thought the low temp solder sounded a little suspect for such work. I have a supplier for high content hard solder close by so getting it isn't a problem. I think I'll give it a try.


-Xander
 
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