Mokume Gane project.

Daniel Macina

Daniel Macina

Well-Known Member
Thought I would share with you a little project I did last night. Some Mokume. I used a dozen quarters although the top two slide pretty bad so it’s probably more like 10 layers. Still obviously some cleanup and then it’s going to get turned into a necklace and possibly a charm for a charm bracelet for my moms birthday. A quick note the top 2 quarters wouldn’t have slid if I was able to make a little clamping jig to hold the quarters while they were in the fire. I was in the middle of drilling the holes to make a jig and my drill press decided to catch fire so the jig didn’t get made.

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Very interesting piece - always like the mokume affect. What caught fire on the drill press...belt, motor?
 
Chris Railey said:
Nice. Mokume is on my list to try. How many quarters do you think it would take to make a bowie guard?
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If you were going with quarters two dozen might give you enough depending on the size of the guard? I suspect the taller the stack you get though the more problems you’re going to have with delamination’s and that sort of thing. If I was going to do something bigger like a guard I would do it with half dollars.
 
Chris Railey said:
I think I will just get some copper and nickel bar stock from USAknifemaker.com it will be cheaper.
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I should’ve said that too if I was doing this for a nice project I would definitely get some nice clean bar stock. I just did this to experiment more than anything. I needed to hit something with a hammer. Lol. Fair warning that stuff sure does feel weird welding up I didn’t think the weld took at all but I ground off the sides and it was one solid piece.
 
I have had success doing this by wrapping the stack of quarters up in heat treat foil.
You wrap them nice and tight, then close up the ends and flatten the foil down with a hammer so the stack stands straight in the forge.
 
Owl said:
I have had success doing this by wrapping the stack of quarters up in heat treat foil.
You wrap them nice and tight, then close up the ends and flatten the foil down with a hammer so the stack stands straight in the forge.
Click to expand...

That would work good. I was in the process of building a clamp like this when my drill press went out 69400
 
You get more contrast if you alternate quarters and nickels. I press the nickels cold to about the size of the quarters I press onto a piece of D2 (plainer blade). The nickels will dent mild steel.
 
Owl said:
I have had success doing this by wrapping the stack of quarters up in heat treat foil.
You wrap them nice and tight, then close up the ends and flatten the foil down with a hammer so the stack stands straight in the forge.
Click to expand...
Thanks for posting that Owl that method should work even better for copper/nickel bar stock.
 
Chris Railey said:
I am guessing that clamp is sacrificial? When you turn it red and hit it with a hammer you are going to need a new clamp...or am I missing something?
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You don’t actually hit it with the clamp on. The metals will actually fuse from just the clamping pressure. I don’t know how many heats the clamp would hold up to if any.
 
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