Mokume Gane Success At Last
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 29 ส.ค. 2024
- After my previous part-failed attempt, I addressed the mistakes I made in part 1 and kept going. I hope you enjoy.
JimmysCanal: www.youtube.co....
Dimitris's scriber: www.etsy.com/u....
Music: incompetech.fi....
I have done mokume gane several hundreds of times without clamps or any other of the things used here....Gravity will do the job if all surfaces to be joined are clean and perfectly flat....a stack of four.soldered perfectly with medium solder.....two silver and two copper makes beautiful mokume...i then roll out to twice the length, cut in half and restack and solder...giving a billet of eight layers..and so on up to 16 layers...then i roll out to 1 mm. thickness and repousse the result..my sheets are 4 cm by 4 cm...to start with...finished size at 16 layers...about ten inches by an inch and three quarters...ill take a photo...
Hi. Thanks so much. I am really interested in what you say. May I be in touch to learn more?
The lead, tin and zinc in the brass gives it a lower melting point then copper, this might explain the melting issue.
Maybe give it some extra pressure by putting the press into a vise and cranking down on it some more.
Also get steel bolts that are not galvanized, zinc fumes are very bad for your health.
Your patience and persistence bear fruit, well done my friend! I'm sure that very soon we will see beautiful Mokume Gane patterns on plates and rods becoming amazing projects!
Dimitris
Thank you my friend
I commend you for trying on cam. Not many people are brave enough to put their experimentation stage on cam.
And here comes the advice.. (sorry)
You would be better off using a forge, and watching it by eye for the right colour (cherry red) and touching at as it gets close to see if the metal is tacky. To get really nice designs you are going to need to twist it. And you need a forge for that, or at least a decent blow torch. The vice technique does not seem like a good option, although expansion should create compression, but in reality you need to give it another press after you pull it out at the right temp, and that clamp stops you doing that with a hammer or a press.
I think you are doing it all right, but just with the wrong tools.
Thanks very much. I will try what you say. How do you keep the layers tight while in the forge? Wire?
@@Ukenick The thing is you are NOT forge welding, you are effectively brazing the meltals together. So the key aspects are to get the pieces as clean and flat as possible, and watch very closely by eye as they heat up, and at the perfect point when the metals are both soft you apply pressure unifromally to bond them.
If you heat it up in a kiln, you may get the temparature right, but not the timing. You need to watch it by eye. Clamps, wire, and casket forging works by the heat expansion creating pressure for you as the metals heat up, pushing the materials together. But with softer metals, really it's all about the perfect heat, and close contact rather than pressure. Wire would be a better option to simply hold the layers in place, if you tighten/clamp them too hard, the differing expansions can actually break the welds as the materials expand at different rates.
Get them clean, perfectly flat, and hot then tap them whilst lightly secured, then reheat, and repeat, until when you hit it it no longer sounds hollow, and your anvil rings with a solid hit. I forge damascus, which is actually harder than gane, as you need to worry about oxides, and true forge welding, rather than brazing. In that area, you need to start using stainless steel foil, activated carbon/argon and a LOT of pressure. Gane requires, very careful heat management, and gentle taps and patience.
Watch this guy: th-cam.com/video/RZwmEkhijKw/w-d-xo.html
and the best way.. with wire.. th-cam.com/video/6RXJTImt-Cg/w-d-xo.html
@@SmurfMasher many thanks for taking the time. I’ll try again.
@@Ukenick I actually found the perfect interview with a real pro on this stuff.
th-cam.com/video/kKE0vu63PP8/w-d-xo.html
It's mostly about Stainless damascus but the tequniques cover mokume as well. Apparently mokume materials also oxidise which I did not know. In that case some stainless foil with a pinch of activated carbon would likely help. Wrap it in wire, encase it in airtight stainless foil. and heat it and turn it often. As it is in foil you should be able to detect the squish point by pressing on the billet with a tool, and feeling when it is getting soft. Then take it out, wack it with a hammer in the foil.
Very interesting.....well done!
Many thanks!
" *If at first you don't succeed* , *try a bigger hammer* ."
What tenpture did you get it to
I don't totally trust my PID, but I took it to about 850C and let it soak at that temperature for 2 hours.
@@Ukenick Thank you I thought you got the bugs worked out of your heat treat oven