Mokume gane

[ps_bond]

Only joking! - seriously it is outstanding - great job.

I thought you probably were, somehow- it *is* a brushed finish!

I needed to knock down the reflective surface a bit before oxidising it - couldn't see the pattern otherwise.

Right, who's going to have a go at doing this next? Maybe starting a little smaller for a first attempt...?

[Di Sandland]

LOL Peter - it sounds like a Jason job to me

[Hart-Star]

I am suitably amazed that anyone could come up with such a stunning product, and also be able to bare their soul as it took shape

Top marks

[Lindyloo]

Been away for a bit, so I'm a bit slow at responding, but I second the wow. That's really lovely Peter. Can't believe all the work that went into it. Is it rude of me to ask what you reckon it would be worth?

[ps_bond]

Honestly? It depends what the market will bear. There's about 45 hours of work in it, mostly forging it down. The materials cost wasn't terribly high, but even if I'd been using silver the labour would still make up the lion's share of the cost.

I know what a similar size bowl from a known silversmith is priced at; he's (hopefully!) faster and has a reputation to go with it.

[Jayne]

That is a seriously lovely bit of klobber, Peter.
You could always save it for the next 'Secret Santa'
J x

[Ominicci]

Peter the bowl is amazing! Thank you for sharing! I think I was burgled as I couldn't find it under my tree...

[KTMAY]

I can see why mokume gane is so expensive. I shall have up my silversmithing skills before investing in some. The finished pieces I have seen made from this are beautiful. Not sure I have the skill (or patience) to make my own just yet.

[Lucy]

Cool Topic

I haven't read through the whole thread yet but have a quick question.

You mentioned flooding the billet with easy flow solder - I wondered why easy flow? wouldn't that strictly limit any further fabrication you may want to do with the mokume. If you used hard to start with, you could then fabricate the rest of the piece using medium.

[ps_bond]

The alloy that forms at the boundary of the two metals fusing is too low melting point to really risk hard - and I was only flowing solder on the edge of the billet to help avoid the thing delaminating, nothing more. The edges are pretty much sacrificial anyway, but if they start to go then the resulting crack can propagate quite a long way. There's no solder left by the time I've got the full sheet.