Mokume Gane training

[Rigcraft]

Good evening all,

Can anybody recommend a good quality Mokume Gane training course here in the UK? Or even a mentor who would be willing to train me, obviously I would be willing to cross his/her palm with silver for their time.

Kind regards

Martin

[ps_bond]

Other than Alistair MaCallum's occasional courses at West Dean (which is for soldered mokume gane) I'm not aware of any. What are you looking for? Just the basics, or something more advanced?
I can get a bit carried away with the technical side at times, resorting to ternary phase diagrams at the drop of a hat...

[Rigcraft]

Hi Peter,

Iam looking to be educated as much as possible on the whole process. I have started making Damascus stainless steel rings and my eventual aim is move on to creating Mokume Gane rings using only precious metals I’m thinking the likes of Steven Jacob rings in the U.S as a reference. I understand the forging processes of making the Damascus/Mokume billets and find it fascinating to be honest. I have just found a one day course in Birmingham (Rachel Jeffrey) making a mokume ring using copper and silver so that could be a good place to start. Thank you for your reply.

Kind regards

Martin

[ps_bond]

I was a bit puzzled by who Steven Jacob was - read the site (thinking "I didn't know Steve had given it up") and now I understand.

If you can get hold of a copy of Steve Midgett's book at a sensible price (and Ian Ferguson's), that's a good start. Amazon have a couple at ~£32, but... You'd have to be fluent in German. I see Steve offers his for $595.

A couple of comments on the course syllabus - 1) it is both unnecessary and wrong to flux the sheets before stacking (there's too much risk of trapping flux) - by all means flux the outside edges of the billet once it's stacked and 2) see https://mokume-gane.com/2015/07/06/why-you-dont-want-a-copper-and-silver-mokume-gane-ring/ for why copper/silver is a bad combination for mokume gane rings. I'd guess at the course being torch fused, which is great for some things, but if you have a temperature controlled kiln then going for solid state rather than liquid phase diffusion is better in a number of ways (smaller alloy bands between the metals, no risk of melting, even soak of heat, no chance of hydrogen embrittlement, oxygen-free atmosphere by using stainless foil + charcoal to scavenge O2).

All mokume gane needs to bond is time, pressure and cleanliness. It'll bond at room temperature with enough pressure, but it could take a while.

[Rigcraft]

Yes Steve midgett’s books seems like the holy bible of Mokume Gane but I almost fell off my chair when I saw the price, I will keep searching for an English copy though. I understand the effect of copper and silver and how they react together I suppose in the early stages it just a cheaper way of nailing down the technique of creating a billet rather than using gold for example. I may just bite the bullet and have a go myself what could possibly go wrong!

[ps_bond]

There used be an excerpt from his book detailing how to do a small torch-fired billet using a modified G clamp, a couple of firebricks and (preferably) 2 torches. I can't see it on the site now, but archive.org might have a copy.
I'd have thought doing another print run would be worthwhile by now.

[Rigcraft]

I would love them to another print run the £500+ for a book is hard to stomach at the moment. Do you create your own Mokume Peter?

[ps_bond]

I can imagine! I've got a fair few books that are out-of-print and seem to command silly prices on Amazon.

I've been known to make the odd billet or two over the past, er, 15 years?

[ps_bond]

This was from 2009 -

11920

[china]

That inspires me to light up the forge dust off the anvil (They are in the shed some where? )

Maybe I could build a power hammer that would fun, just the thing I need for my neighbour

[ps_bond]

A power hammer is a more sensible way to work down large billets. No room for one, unfortunately - not even a dinky single-phase job.

[china]

Back a long time ago I did some unpaid work for a fellow just learn the basics, his power hammer came down with 22t each time the whole building would shake yep you guessed it no ear muffs

you had to shout at him even 5" from his ear

[Rigcraft]

Looks great Peter, thank you for sharing.

That inspires me even more I will be doing the same as China “firing up the forge” although I will have to buy/make one first.