Japanese Shibuichi?

[NatSiddle]

Hi

I saw some examples of metalowrk does using Japanese Shibuichi-apparently a mix of one part sterling silver to three parts copper.

Has anyone used this or made their own? Im hoping to make some at my next class (Silversmithing) and I have a small amount of silver (less than 25g) and a LOT of copper so thought it would be fun to make some and maybe cast a peice with it?

Thanks for your time
Nat

[ps_bond]

Yes, but I've only cast into an ingot mould so far - one of these days I'll try the traditional method of casting into hot water and see what sort of ingot I get.

Did you see any shakudo too?

[NatSiddle]

Shakudo? Is that the one whch uses Gold? I tried typing mixed metals/mixed alloys into Google in the hope I got a link to a blog or to a wikipedia article but all I get is sites dealing mainly with sterling silver
Ill have a browse for it, although if it is gold it might be a little out of my budget

[Di Sandland]

there was an article about these very interesting looking alloys in a recent issue of Art Jewellery but I can't for the life of me find it in my pile of magazines. However, I did find this alloy calculator. I'll carry on looking for the article itself because it had something about suppliers ini t.

[ps_bond]

Shakudo is about 4% gold from memory. It patinates a lovely purple/black in rokusho. Currently experimenting with something that could be a viable rokusho, not sure yet - need to do some samples yet.

If you want to see some really nice examples of modern work using Japanese alloys, Jim Kelso and Ford Hallam use them a lot.

Just don't think of making kuromido yourself (arsenic).

[NatSiddle]

there was an article about these very interesting looking alloys in a recent issue of Art Jewellery but I can't for the life of me find it in my pile of magazines. However, I did find this alloy calculator. I'll carry on looking for the article itself because it had something about suppliers ini t.

Thanks for that calculator-Ive copied down some recipes it spat out and hopefully tomorrow night at class I will make something pretty interesting, wether it works or not!

[daisychain]

I've found the article Di mentioned - it's in the March 2010 issue of Art Jewellery. There's an article on the history, patinas, and some other technical info, and also a project on a cuff that layers Shibuichi and silver, fixing them with rivets. Some of the info:
Shibuichi literally translates as "four parts" or "one quarter", meaning that it's generally made up of 3 parts copper and one part silver, but it's also the generic name for a group of alloys like hoji-gin and samobo-gin, each with varying percentage of copper and silver, up to 50% silver. It can be etched using ferric-chloride, reticulated, cast.
The author, Lee Rumsey Haga, prefers to patina her work. Lee uses ammonia, but you can also buy Baldwin's patina which gives a range of warm olive and brown tones, and Rokusho which gies gray/green tones. You can see some of her work here CMAG Members. The bamboo cuff is my favourite!
The only supplier listed in the magazine is Reactive Metals Studio, Inc. Home Page.

Hope that helps - please show use what you make! I'd love to have a go at this - it's on my long must-do list!

[daisychain]

I've just seen some effective yet simple Shibuichi jewellery, some of it enamelled, on a blog here mairedodd: just one of those 'what if' thoughts