Amateurs guide to making mokume gane

[Blank Blades.]

So the amatuer in the title is referring to me. Lol.

But this is how I've been doing it, and its been working pretty well. I'm about to make another piece and figured I would document the process for anyone interested in making it in the future.

So first things first. Materials.

You need:
Copper*
Nickel*
Tin snips or something to cut it.
A heat source.
Something to hold the metal together before welding.

I start with copper sheet, and this thin nickel sheet. Because i find being able to cut it to the size i want convenient.

The first step I do is clean the surfaces.

This is the sheet after using the scotch brite wheel on my bench grinder, but a regular scotch brite, or fine sandpaper could also work well for this.

Next ill cut the metal to the size i need and make a stack. Im about to do this so ill update.

* Note some people use US quarters for their source of nickel and copper. This works. But definitely thoroughly clean the surfaces before attempting to forge weld.

 

[Skylar303]

So interested in this style! Gave it a few (failed) attempts. Do you know a way to do it without a welder? Unfortunately don't have one or access to one.

 

[Blank Blades.]

Alright. So now that i have my nickel and copper cut up into relatively the same sized pieces i'll stack them alternating copper and nickel. I may have to cut some more. But ill see how thick this amount gets me.

 

[Blank Blades.]

So interested in this style! Gave it a few (failed) attempts. Do you know a way to do it without a welder? Unfortunately don't have one or access to one.

I don't use a welder for how i do it.

Ill show that in a bit when i'm done prepping.

 

[Blank Blades.]

Alright. Now that they are all cut and stacked.

I will take that stack and give it some taps with my hammer* to attempt to if not get the pieces as flat as possible, at least get them to match eachother. So they sit closer together.

*When working with soft metals like copper, its a good idea to polish the face of your hammer, and whatever you are using as an anvil. Its very easy to transfer marks to the work.

 

[Blank Blades.]

The final thing in preparation i do is wrap the stack with steel wire. To hold it together before its forge welded.

I compress it and then wrap it as tightly as i can going one way, then do another going the other direction.

The thing about wrapping this stack with wire. Is if you hammer it with the wire there. It leaves deep imprints. Next I'll show what i do to try to avoid that. Ill likely have to take a video.

 

[Blank Blades.]

For now though. Its time to heat the forge. Which is my choice to heat this. And definitely my recommendation

 

[Blank Blades.]

Pro tip. Make sure to keep your vape charged. Proper levels of nicotine are crucial for good forge welds.

 

[Blank Blades.]

Alright. So now down to the exciting part. Getting it forge welded.

Get whatever you're using to heat it fired up. In my case im using a forge so thats what i'll refer to from now on.

I put it in. And move it pretty much constantly. Especially with a bit of a thicker stack like this.

Allow it to get hot enough that its glowing. And if you are used to steel. Its a bit odd how copper looks in a forge. When its at the right heat. It almost looks like when it moves to a spot that is slightly cooler you can see the colors change in fluid sort of way. Its hard to describe.

To get the welds set. I hit it with this stick i made for moving stuff in the forge i can't reach with my tongs. This allows me to avoid picking up a loose stack of sheets of metal like this. And also allows the the forge welds to start to get set in an oxygen free environment.

It looks a bit ridiculous. But it does work. To just get the welds set. Unfortunately i accidentally put two pieces of nickel together in the stack, and it doesnt weld as easily to itself as it does to copper. So ill have to stick a piece of copper in there, and redo the setting process. Though its much easier with two already made stacks than a loose stack of metal.

Also i ran out of propane. So ill have to carry my tank to the store to get more. And probably uber back. So ill update when im done with that.

 

[Blank Blades.]

Alright. Got a shiny new propane tank and some ice cream.

Nowi can pickup where i left off

 

[Blank Blades.]

Alright. Now. After this step. This is what you should be left with. As you can see it did get some indentions from the wire even with just tapping it. But i promise they would be worse if you hammered it

Also. I attempted to capture what it should look like when its at the right heat. But my phone camera doesnt do it justice.

Anyway. Now. Cool it. Get the wire off if you havent already. And its time to put it back in the forge and do one or two more welding heats but actually hammering it now.

Like i said. You really want to have a polished hammer face for this stuff.

 

[Blank Blades.]

I will ad more pictures after im done with the forge welding completely. But one thing to mention. Is especially in the first one or two heats do not hit it on the side. If you are careful you can later on. But not at first or it will split apart.

 

[Blank Blades.]

Alright. Now after doing the next 2 or 3 heats with the purpose mostly being to set the forge welds. And a secondary purpose of getting out the indents from the steel wire. We are left with this.

There are bits at the edge that are oxidized that werent lined up perfectly with the material next to it, and some parts that might have shifted a little while getting the billet welded. I try to account for that in the beginning and make it a little larger than i need.

After grinding those bits off this is what i have.

 

[Blank Blades.]

So now that we have some copper and nickel forge welded. Thats all fine, but if we want a little more excitement in our pattern than more less straight lines, we need to something to get it there.

On the two pieces i finished and put up for sale the way I got the pattern i did was by hitting it with a ball peen then grinding it flat. Leaving round sort of random spots.

There are a few other ways you can go about it.

Like by doing the opposite of what i did. And grinding spots strategically then forging it flat to give a pattern. Which is how a ladder pattern is done.

Also another option is cutting and stacking in ways that give us a pattern. Though for this size of a billet it would be a bit more difficult to pull that off.

 

[Blank Blades.]

Alright. Got a pattern into this.

I started it with some needle files. And then used a dremel to get out more more material.

Finally i used files again to widen it and clean it up a bit.

 

[Blank Blades.]

Good news, and bad news.

The pattern worked. But its too thin and wide. So im going to cut it and stack it.

 

[Blank Blades.]

Alright.

Now grind your metal a little and give it a test etch. Just to make the copper pop.

Congratulations (insert name here)! You have now successfully made a piece of mokume-gane!

 

[rocketman]

Thanks for your descriptions and pictures.. Helpful for those of us interested in the process.

 

[RD_Knives]

Thnx indeed for posting! Always like this kind of tutorials to see.

 

[RDalman]

Awesome thread, got a itch to try it again. I made some (brass/nickel) a couple of years back in the electric kiln. I used plates with bolts and nuts and wrapped it in stainless foil, baked near melting point and set the welds pressing the middle of the packages in the leg vice. For patterning I drilled holes and forged flat.

 

[RDalman]

This is fun indeed! Some bolster material being made. Patterned by cutting some lines and forging flat.

 

[RD_Knives]

This is fun indeed! Some bolster material being made. Patterned by cutting some lines and forging flat.
View attachment 245848View attachment 245849View attachment 245850

Looks great aswell!
Did you made this in a forge or electric heat treat oven?
Just curious what temp to set it in a electric heat treat oven.
Defenitely going to try this out aswell.

 

[RDalman]

Looks great aswell!
Did you made this in a forge or electric heat treat oven?
Just curious what temp to set it in a electric heat treat oven.
Defenitely going to try this out aswell.

Electric. Baked for 850 ~1h. Ramped to 940, held 15 min, took out and pressed. Now I made a thicker press block and will try only baking it at 850 for maybe 6 hours, supposedly that should work too

 

[RDalman]

And btw I used a different source for proper nicotine level. It works too

 

[RDalman]

My second run today, thicker press and just bake for 3h at 850, welds seemed really solid. I left a piece of nickel long on the other side to hold with the tongs and I think that was a bad idea as the billet split there when forging out. I think I prefer the shorter baketime, little bit hotter and press.

 

[Blank Blades.]

My second run today, thicker press and just bake for 3h at 850, welds seemed really solid. I left a piece of nickel long on the other side to hold with the tongs and I think that was a bad idea as the billet split there when forging out. I think I prefer the shorter baketime, little bit hotter and press.

Yeah. Any area where it makes it as if you are forging the layers on end. Gives a bit more likely hood of a split. Just have to be carefull with that.

One of the biggest reasons i like doing it in a forge is i can just put it back into the reducing atmosphere, and get it reforge welded if i think its about to start splitting. Which is what i had to do a few times when doing the pins for this thing.

Since just to get them made i had to draw out a stack into a long cylinder that i could then just shape to the size i needed after.

 

[RD_Knives]

Electric. Baked for 850 ~1h. Ramped to 940, held 15 min, took out and pressed. Now I made a thicker press block and will try only baking it at 850 for maybe 6 hours, supposedly that should work too

If the 1hr works good with the ramp is better then a 6hr cycle timewise.

 

[Taz575]

I've tried it with quarters stacked up and TIG welded with no filler rod in my propane forge. I always seem to have a delam, so I got some sheets of copper, nickel and brass to try next time! I even cleaned the quarters with acetone before stacking them. It's hard getting the heat to the center of the billet, so I may need to turn my stack more often and get the forge at a lower temp so the outer layers don't cook too fast. It gets sweaty looking when at the right temp, but I have also squirted the copper out when hammering it before, which means some was too hot!

Stacked and Tig welded:

Discs drilled. The half circles I cut in half and re stacked to get more layers:

And when they were done:

 

[rocketman]

Great looking!!

 

[Blank Blades.]

I've tried it with quarters stacked up and TIG welded with no filler rod in my propane forge. I always seem to have a delam, so I got some sheets of copper, nickel and brass to try next time! I even cleaned the quarters with acetone before stacking them. It's hard getting the heat to the center of the billet, so I may need to turn my stack more often and get the forge at a lower temp so the outer layers don't cook too fast. It gets sweaty looking when at the right temp, but I have also squirted the copper out when hammering it before, which means some was too hot!

Stacked and Tig welded:
View attachment 246559

Discs drilled. The half circles I cut in half and re stacked to get more layers:

View attachment 246557

And when they were done:
View attachment 246558

The best luck i had with quarters. Was taking them and cleaning the faces on my scotchbrite wheel on the grinder before forge welding. Also i make sure to give them extra welding heats since its welding nickel to nickel