Mokume

Jewelry Discussion
1

I have a doubt about Mokume : do you sold each layer or do you fuse them
on the melting point? I am sorry about my english, I hope I’m clear
enough to be understood! Thank you if someone could help me.

Camila, welcome, and don’t worry about the English! You evidently speak
more English than I do Spanish!

I have been experimenting with Mokume myself and there are two ways to do
it:

  1. Real Mokume, where there is no solder and the metals are heated in a
    press until they fuse, and

  2. Fake Mokume where the sheets are soldered together.

The fake is OK for small pieces of sheet that are not going to be worked
very much after rolling and which are not going to be extensively
soldered. Otherwise they de-laminate and fall apart. To do this, make
sure that your sheets of metal are flat and perfectly clean, cover the
surface with tiny bits of hard solder and stack the next sheet on top. You
do this two or three times (it won’t work for more) and then heat it until
the solder flows, then push down on the sheets to make them bond. As I
say, it is not ideal.

The real is great, but the process depends a bit on what metals you are
trying to laminate. If you want more details, I would suggest consulting
a book on the process and there are some excellent articles in the orchid
archives:

https://www.ganoksin.com/orchid/lwgate/search.htm

I have bought ready made Mokume from Reactive Metals Studios… it is
expensive, but absolutely perfect and, in my opinion, worth it if you are
not going to specialise in Mokume.

Hope that this helps.

Yours aye,
Dauvit Alexander,
Glasgow, Scotland.

2

Hi, just took a class with steve Midgett at the
Wild acres camp and he was great… We made our own little “ovens” and then
made billets and they were wonderful… Fused of course… He has a book out
so if you can buy that you will see what I mean… Have fun…calgang

3

Hi, How big are your mokume’ gane billets? What is the title of the
book and subject? Having fun. Bill

4 
   ..... just took a class with steve Midgett at the Wild
acres camp and he was great.. We made our own little "ovens"
and then made billets and they were wonderful.. Fused of
course.. He has a book out so if you can buy that you will see
what I mean....

Just been catching up on some mail that I didn’t have time to
read first time around, and came across your note about mokume.
Could you give me some more details of the “ovens”, and the title
(and ISBN if possible) of the book?

Many thanks.
Kevin

Kevin Eva, Northern England, UK
@Kevin_Eva (home)

5

Brain Press does sell both Midgetts book and his video on the
same subject.

the book’s isbn is ISBN 0-9651650-8-6

Email me off list if you want it from us, otherwise you could
try Amazon.com.

Charles

Charles Lewton-Brain/Brain Press
Box 1624, Ste M, Calgary, Alberta, T2P 2L7, Canada
Tel: 403-263-3955 Fax: 403-283-9053 Email: @Charles_Lewton-Brain

Metals info download web site: http://www.ganoksin.com/borisat/tree.cgi
Book and Video descriptions: http://www.ganoksin.com/kosana/brain/brain.htm
Gallery page at: http://www.ganoksin.com/brain/gallery.htm