colorblind72

We were talking about them as chopsticks. You would need strong hands, they are fairly heavy. Hair sticks would be cool. @Chinobi, yep I messed up the horizontal ones. I used a tool I made a while back for my PH. It is a double bevel cutter that comes into square shoulders like you are describing. So If you can imagine this. There would be a cut which would partition the skulls and then square shoulders for the sides of the jaw. The issue I ran into is the bar was not tall enough in the X axis and then the material left for the skulls was so small that punching the eyes was almost impossible. They ended up too close together. Under the PH I do the same operation in a row. Once I'm punching and have moved to the vice I punch whatever section is loosing heat the quickest, because the material is so small it losses heat really really fast. So I cut the mouth slit on all of them first to give me a base for building the rest of the skull. Then I pin punch the eyes. Then I pin punch the nose then I widen the eyes with a large round tapered punch which pushes they eye sockets outward. Then I set a deep punch mark into the back of the eye socket with a long slightly tapered punch. Then I chisel the teeth in and lastly I take the pin punch and punch the nose hole again. Flicking the tool upward after the hammer strike to pull the bridge of the nose up. Usually they are done at that point. I make and adjustment I see and then wire wheel them hot. Thanks for the feedback. Any ideas for making them into "Things" I'm interested in. I'm going to do a bracelet and as the stems for the other rose/skull projects I'm doing I think they would be cool. JJ

Been working on some more skulls. I am working on a way to do them both vertical and horizontal on the bar. I messed up the vertical ones. Forged the last little bit to a tapered point just for practice. All feedback welcome thanks for looking.

So this is what I came up with for my next combination of images. The cobra is pretty beat. The next one will be better. This was the first success and the thirds attempt. I also almost made a shark out of the point of a RR Spike but really struggled to do the fins. Feedback is welcome. Thanks for looking.

IDK much about steam punk. I will have to do some research or I will look at any links posted. I'm working on heads. I'm trying to figure out how to do a bird skull. Very hard. I only know how to do a horse head and of course skulls. I will keep trying and post them. Thanks guys. I appreciate it.

Awesome, but hurts my heart to see too.

Thanks, Frosty. I'm thinking Rose, Skull, Cobra will be my next attempt. Any suggestions I will take them. I was also thinking about doing a wolf or panther head. All of these are popular in Tattoo Designs. My "Real Job" has been Tattooing for the last 25 years. So I'm looking for another way to make stuff for the communicty.

Thanks, usually the sockets look better. I must have flattened it while trying to get it to stay up right. here are a few more done today.

This is the first project I have shared here. In my attempt to make something marketable and fun I finally found to projects to put together. This is a "Russian Rose" and a Skull I forged from a RR Spike. This is the first one I have ever done. It might be the first one ever. I have never seen one before. I'm glad to have the opportunity to share it. Any feedback or methods of making it better is appreciated. Thanks

I've had good success at this straight from the forge to the vice. I start an inch from the vice jaws and do my first twist with a wrench or visegrips. Then I move down an inch, by then the first in is starting to cool because of the vice acting as a heat sink and I twist in the opposite direction and so on down the line. I can do about 4-5" inches in a heat on a RR spike forged down to maybe half inch square, maybe a little smaller. On a square the high spots are more pronounced. I really like the round stock with a taper. It has a great look and I can imagine it in all kinds of little projects.

That's a really nice rose.

That would be a very kind thing for your girlfriend to do. The book is comprehensive and unfortunately there is not a lot of video of the process on Youtube There is some though and you can get some decent info from it.

I'm sorry, I didn't see the question to me come up. I have had rare success with brass. When I did have success I did it in a steel box with cardboard under and above the billet. This allowed the oxygen to burn out and put a layer of carbon between the top and bottom of the box. I use a pyrometer and if I remember correctly the # you're trying to hit is 1840 degrees. I hold for 15 minutes and then run in a press. I have done the traditional method with torque plates, in a charcoal forge with copper, nickel-silver, and steel never iron. If you use a gas forge it needs to be fuel rich to protect form oxidization. I don't use flux but have seen people do it with success. I have never used a kiln, The kiln process uses a much lower temp with a longer time inside a stainless steel bag with charcoal in it. The bag has charcoal in it to burn the oxygen off. As I understand it you are trying to get electrons form both types of material to switch places to create the bond. If you slightly melt the material and make an alloy you will see a fuzziness on the edge of the bond. Personally I like both looks. http://www.aescustomknives.com/docs/tutorial12.htm This is where I learned the box method. I learned the regular method from this book. http://www.guyotbrothers.com/jewelry-bookshelf/mokume-gane-comprehensive-study.htm I don't check in here a lot but if you have any questions. please feel free to email me at colorblind72@comcast.net.

I have a slight obsession with Mokume. I have had a very hard time with brass added billets. The zinc in the brass makes bonding very difficult. I have found the easiest way to practice is use $5 in 50 cent pieces. Clean thoroughly and put in your torque plates, and fire. I fire using a thermalcouple to read temps. 1830-1840 is your range for copper, brass, nickel silver billets. Otherwise you do have to eyeball it and look for the sweating of the billet. A tap or series of taps with a wood dowel hit with a hammer is how I do it. Cold working is great but anneal often. reduce by a third and start patterning. The top image is the best copper, brass, nickel bond I've done and the bottom is coins. The brass billet was done in a steel box with cardboard in it to burn out the oxygen and minimize scale then pressed in a large screw press.