Soldering on mokume gane

Hi,

We have a job where the client purchased a very nice mokume gane
engagement ring made by/from the Michael Daniels Collection.

The ring came with a platinum partial bezel that the client doesn’t
like. We are making a new custom platinum center setting that better
meets her expectations.

My question is, what should I expect when I heat up this ring to
remove the old bezel and then solder in the new setting? Are the
multiple layers of metals ever soldered together or always fused? Do
I need to be concerned about solder flowing within the mokume gane
itself?

I am assuming that boric acid and alcohol and careful, precise heat
with a softish flame that doesn’t heat up the mokume any more than
necessary will do the trick. Is that right?

Thanks,
Mark

If you read the whole “About us” most of your questions will be
answered. It may be that the setting is laser welded, a totally
different problem. Why don’t you just contact the maker?

Bill
Bill, Deborah & Michele
Reactive Metals Studio, Inc
928-634-3434, 800-876-3434, 928-634-6734fx

I would be very very careful. First question, what are the metals in
the laminate? I hesitate to give you specific recommendations as
they use their own custom alloys that I have no experience with. They
diffusion bond their materials so the only solder is on the setting
and joint of the band. But diffusion bonded material typically has
issues with overheating and you can ruin it in a heartbeat. Call
Michael Daniels and see if they will give you advise on how to
approach reworking their product. We get calls from jewelers on
occasion who want to rework our bands and we try to give them as
much info as we can but unfortunately there is no substitute for
working on the material and ruining a few along the way to teach you
what the limits are.

Jim

James Binnion
@James_Binnion
James Binnion Metal Arts

360-756-6550

James B. says; Call Michael Daniels and see if they will give you
advise on how to approach reworking their product.

We did not sell the client the ring, only the center stone, so we do
not have a relationship with them. I did try to contact Michael
Daniels first, but they don’t seem to have any contact info on their
site. I searched each partners name and also came up empty. I assume
this is deliberate because they wholesale their work to retailers,
they must want the retailers to do all of the dealing with the
public.

I may need to contact one of the retailers who sell their work and
see if they can put me in contact with them…unless someone on the
list can give me contact off list.

Mark