Hi All, This is my first piece of mokume, a simple cuff bracelet. The billet was made from 16 circular disks that had a copper core and were clad in cupric nickel.  After forging out the billet to square and about 8" long I cut it in half, and did a series of alternating 120 degree twists, then forged it round, then into a rectangular profile prior to bending around a simple form.  I messed around with finishing it and found I liked the look with ammonia and table salt.  A few dings here and there and I had to grind away some delamination that arose when I bent the band around the form.  It seemed to cool off awfully quickly so maybe it was too cold.  Anyway, today I made another billet out of copper and nickel silver sheet stock in a torque press..2 hours at 1850 F.  I will play with that next...I really like this stuff!

that turned out great.  I like using ammonia for getting the patina on copper, gives a great contrast with silver or nickel, ya did well.  let me know when you are ready to sell small billets for knife furnature.  I hate the hastle of mokume in a coal forge.  I need a diffferent set up for a gas forge to heat the press plates in

Really nice looking! Great job.

Looks good Nicole. You developed the pattern nicely and the patina has a nice rich color.

 

Steve: I've had good luck with a simple steel clamp made from 2 pieces of 1/4" strap and 4, 3/8" bolts. A light sprinkle of borax helps if you're heating in coal or charcoal and doesn't hurt a bit in a gasser.

 

Mokume is fun, even the failures can be spectacularly beautiful.

 

Frosty The Lucky.

4- 3/8" bolts  2- 3/8" thick 4 inch square steel for the torque plates.  I use white-out as a resist for the plates and bolt shafts. it works, but when it dont, ICK.

Hi Steve, Ian and Frosty, thanks for the comments.  As I look online at different samples of mokume I notice the incredible range of colors, textures and contrast that folks can achieve. It seems endless for the possibilities! On we go...

Looks great, nice work!

awesome work Nicole! that looks great! There are quite a few patina recipes strewn throughout the alchemy and formula section of IFI that you might find interesting, or you can also look for a copy of Ian Ferguson's book on Mokume Gane, he has a whole chapter on patinas and a lengthy gallery in the back with examples of finished pieces.

 

maybe take a piece of your next billet and do the twisting before you cut it in half lengthwise, you can get some really cool patterns that way!

 

looking forward to future work!

Oh my Chinobi, I never did cut my billet lengthwise- I can still do that- and will! TY

Nicole

I just read this thread and was wondering how the copper/nickle silver billet came out. I have made a lot of that combination and the nickle/silver is a bear to work with. It starts to crumble every chance it gets. The only way I have found to stop that and make it stay together is to work it orange hot, stop when the color dissapears, and then anneal. Annealing between each working heat seems to keep it together. I have also found that the nickle/silver develops a light blue coloration.

Hi Cliff, I just saw your post. I guess I should subscribe to my own threads :))  Anyway, I did work it very hot but did not do any annealing.. it seemed to be OK once I cut away all the stragly stuff on the edges of the initial billet.  I have very little experience with this and just made my first billet of copper/brass tonight to practice playing with patterns.   One thing I did notice about nickel silver is that it seems much harder to move than copper...curious to see how copper/brass behaves.  I have a twenty layer billet I will play with tomorrow

Nickel is really tough stuff, the copper/brass stack will move much easier under the hammer. the brass has a much lower melting point though, so you have to watch out for overheating.  if you see the brass sweating out when you remove it from the fire give it a sec to resolidify before you whack it to avoid the supernova

Yeah, copper and brass is a dream compared to copper and nickel. 

A bad dream for me!  So I have N=3 for mokume billets I have made.  Quarter stack, able to forge, pretty well behaved.  Then I made a stack of sheet copper and copper-nickel, 70:30.  I was able to forge that and did not have too much trouble.  My Cu brass billet on the other hand was delaminating all over the place.  I need to make another billet..The one I made was sort of wide and hammering on edge did it in.  I did not do a good job of cleaning the sheets, I just sanded them down and wiped them off with a paper towel. Something tells me it might not have been clean enough.  I left it for 2 hours at 1600F in a torque plate to make the billet.  Back to the drawing board!

 

Oh yes, Chinobi- it WAS too hot..forgot about that lovely splash on the anvil Thanks

Edited March 5, 201511 yr by nicole

You are right, that is not clean enough. Really easy mistake to make, we all want to get to the fun part. I have good luck using a small powered scotch brite before shearing the sheet to size, then washing with detergent and a final alcohol rinse as I stack. Have you tried copper/silver? It  melts really low as well and makes a mess. 

Are you getting melt after your heat at 1600? If so you probably have a bad thermocouple in your kiln. Is it a type k or an s? 

Nickel is really tough stuff, the copper/brass stack will move much easier under the hammer. the brass has a much lower melting point though, so you have to watch out for overheating.  if you see the brass sweating out when you remove it from the fire give it a sec to resolidify before you whack it to avoid the supernova

I did that on my second attempt to weld a billet. The fireworks were amazing until I realized some of it landed on my shirt and was getting to my skin. First attempt too cold second too hot third just right. :)