Bärsärkar-gång

To clarify Mokumé-Gane is not a specific metal but a technique, Mokumé can be made with karated gold, fine silver, sterling silver, copper, brass, and many other metals.

I work with this stuff on an almost daily basis and I love it, while I'm not sure as to the capabilities of it for blocks and such it is perfect for accents and decoration (though I would love to see a copper/brass mokume case, not really cost effective to use precious metals on that massive a piece. Pricing wise a 1"x3" piece of silver/copper just this last week from Rio Grande was $101USD)

The part that I love the most is the patterning,using cutting burs, ball burs and a wide variety of other tools you can create intricate designs on the surface of the metal, then you roll it flat to create a level surface that you can then make into jewelry or whatever you want, another interesting pattern is if you take a long rectangle and twist it then cut it down the center you get a nice star pattern(ill see if I can get a photo of this when I'm at the shop).

Here are a few of my own patterns that I've created recently.

Both of these are silver and copper, in the second photo I put a patina on the copper (by the way, a good brown to black patina (depending on how long you leave it on) can be achived using baldwins patina)

For anyone interested in more on mokume you need to buy the book, 'Mokumé-Gane A Comprehensive Study' by a guy named Steve Midgett, this book will tell you how to prepare, fuse and pattern your mokume, however there were so few books printed that they run about $375-425 on amazon (shesh, when they first came out they sold for $30), One of the guest authors is a guy named Bob Coogan one of the kindest gentelmen you will ever meet, he teaches metals at the appalachian center for craft and he taught the guy who taught me, (not to say I don't know Mr. Coogan)

Anyway, if you guys have any interest in this stuff let me know and ill create a seperate post where I can show my stuff.

Very cool stuff. You should definitely post your other work.

^^ I am with him. Let's see it!

Thanks for the explanation DarkScorpion. I too would like to see your work.

Has this been front-page-featured yet?

Yes but it has been going on so long that its been buried :) Jon did a very nice feature on it about a year ago.

I know Mr. Owen did a review on his blog about a year ago, too.

For men of consequence a mound should be raised to their memory, and for all other warriors who had been distinguished for manhood a standing stone, a custom that remained long after Odin's time.
—The Ynglinga saga

Inscriped with runic script, runestones are monuments erected to mark the death of a warrior or great king. Most were erected between 950-1,100 CE with over 3,000 runestones found scattered across Scandinavia. The highest concentration can be found in Sweden but the Norsemen seeded runestones wherever they went. From the Black Sea to the Isle of Man, the vikings literally made their mark on history.
In recent times, discovery of runestones and runic inscriptions in North America have caused laymen and scholars alike to debate whether the Vikings discovered America before Christopher Columbus.

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Picking up where we left off, so the block I showed last time around developed some funky corrosion that I suspect is the pickle that got in between the layers. Not sure if that means that the join wasn't 100% but why chance it, eh?

To the mod-cave….

This time instead of two sides bolted down, let's try all four.

Bolted down and ready for some night soldering. The more observant may notices that this time the block is one layer thicker (obSpinalTap: this one is one louder). The white paint on the corners is paper correction fluid or White-out. It acts as a solder resist so the solder doesn't flow into the screw holes.

Warming the block up on a turntable fire brick mounted firebrick.

More heat

Getting there

Solder goes in. I'm using an easy flow silver solder this time.

Solder was applied inside and out of the block.

You can see the silver solder wicking nicely up the side of the block.

The solder (65% silver) flows at 1325F (718C). I'm guessing from color that I may have spiked over that.

The color slowly fading.

Once cooled, drilling with a 11.8mm bit.

Then cutting the threads with a G1/4" tap. With the tap in the drill press chuck, I release the head and rest the tap on the brass.

Using a pipe wrench, I turn the drill chuck by hand.

Easy threads. At this point, imagine if you will :), a lot more soldering in my shed during a torrential rain storm so no camera and no pics.

But through the magic of technology, NB block V3. Can you see the layers?

Next up sand blasting, hopefully

Cheescake shot

For next time….

Thanks for looking and many thanks to my sponsors!

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HardwareLabs

This is so epic. I love it.

Very nice,

Just something to remember, hard solder (compaired to soft lead solder) flows to where it is the hottest, so if you have areas that have slightly lower temps solder might not flow there (from your pics it looked pretty even so I think your fine) though silver solder is a bit more forgiving than gold solder.

DS