Copper and silver laminate.

[Daveyboyz]

Looking through my bits was a lump of blackened metal, it has been laying around for 20 years but started life as a lump of melted down scrap silver and a large copper coin called a cartwheel two penny piece.

I am not sure how original the idea was but the plan was partially completed in that I rolled everything through the mills and then soldered it together. Rolled it again cut it in half and soldered it together... I did this several times until I had a piece of plate with alternate layers of copper and silver.

What I wanted to do was mis-shape it by hammering it into doming blocks etc, then file it down to expose the different layers and then mill it flat one last time. With annealing it regularly maybe I could have got it pretty thin and then soldered it onto another sheet of silver just to maximise it but I didn't get quite that far. I also drilled some holes in it and soldered in brass wire....

Well given that I stumbled across it I thought I would make it into something, it being small there weren't too many options but I decided I would cut it into a couple of pendants in the shape of the logo for the band Jamiroquai.

These are unfinished and unpolished but you can see the effect that has been achieved, it shows that such a thing is possible if it is desired and the jury is out on that at the moment. I am not sure whether its a good idea or a poor one to be honest.



I expected the effect to look more like the contour lines on a map, and I think had I manipulated the metal more before taking the surface off it would look that way but alas it seems like I didn't get around to that bit before... you can see in parts the desired effect.



Now the reason I haven't finished or polished these is because I started to use a needle file on the edges and you can see the metal started to delaminate. Most of it is fairly solid but I will have to dig out some solder and firm up one or two edges (I know I have a heap of silver solder somewhere in the back of a cupboard) better I think to clean the edges up with a drill attachment since rubbing along the edge will be much better than across it.



Here you can see the issue... clearly its a technique that would require further experimentation, I wonder if anyone else has seen it before or whether you think it could have any application at all. I mean is it even an attractive effect? Thoughts and opinions?

[Dennis]

What you had there was a simplified version of a Japanese technique Mokume-gane, which is actually done by fusing a selection of metals without solder.

http://www.alloyavenue.com/vb/showth...88-Mokume-gane.

If you look at the work of ps-bond, you will see he has made bowls from it. Dennis.

[ps_bond]

I've been known to make the odd bit or two... If you search the forum you'll find a few posts on the subject - for example this.

One thing you'll see a few times over is that I don't use solder to laminate, only diffusion bonding (usually solid phase diffusion bonding, but sometimes liquid). Soldered mokume gane stems from someone not understanding what they were looking at and deciding it *must* be soldered because that was the only way they knew how to join non-ferrous metals. Keum boo & Sheffield plate are related processes.

[Daveyboyz]

Ahh so it is a thing then ^^ I might have guessed there is nothing new under the sun!

Interesting thread PS-Bond, I see you have everything covered on this. Mine was just an experiment as I had never seen it done before, and I used solder because I wasn't tooled up like you seem to be. When done properly it is quite an attractive effect.

[CJ57]

I think Peter is being a bit coy, hope you don't mind Peter but I think these bowls are rather wonderful. Please remove if you aren't happy but I thought it worth showing an example made by someone on the forum and not just a tinternet example.

[Daveyboyz]

That does look highly effective, I am impressed not only with the colours but just the general smithing... hopefully I will pick up far more regarding the techniques involved in bowls, plates and boxes etc as I never really saw this kind of work undertaken.