This is how I make my mokume gane for knives and jewelry. For additional pictures of finished products using mokume, visit my other social media accounts: Instagram: / zjb_knives Twitter: / zjb_knives Facebook: / zjbknives
I just got done with a 13-14 layer piece. I alternated quarters and nickels. No welder. After watching this, I wanna try for the raindrop pattern. Good job man
When you're forging quarters it's pretty easy, because they're already layered with beautiful metals.. it turns out really awesome.. some other videos that I saw.
Just watched this again, and am about to head out and try this in my coal forge with the quarters inside a section of 6" steel tube to try to keep the heat under control and not melt the quarters. Your video was extremely helpful!!!!
@@zjbknives Turns out my gas forge is the way to go. Coal works, but it's easier to control the heat with gas. Thanks again for the pointers, mine are coming out great!
Great video! You're already ahead of the game by having a real anvil to work on. I was never able to find a legit anvil, so I just ended up making my own from scrap steel and some 1.5" steel plate I found. I couldn't tell if yours is a cast iron base or if it's cast steel. If it's cast steel, you might want to take a good sharp drill bit and drill a hole at the ends of the crack that you have going up the side, and then at least weld up where you drilled. The drill holes will in a sense "terminate" the crack and help keep it from spreading further, even without welding them shut after. If you decide to do this, but don't know whether you have a cast iron, or cast steel anvil, the chips created when drilling will tell you a lot. If it makes basically a powder when drilled, It's cast iron for sure. If it makes small brittle chips, still most likely cast iron. (can't remember off the top of my head which does what, but grey cast iron, and ductile cast iron will behave in one of these two ways) If you have a good sharp bit, and you get chips that look like nice curls, and are flexible, just like what you would get from a piece of steel, then it's most likelycast steel, and can be welded just like any other piece of steel would be. Cast iron can still be welded. I don't care what anyone else says to the contrary, because I,ve done it myself, but for a repair on something that has the mass of an anvil, and just by the nature of it's purpose, is going to have to endure sharp impacts repeatedly, brazing would be the best bet. Also, If you do braze it up, you could grind it back down flush so you can see the shiny gold filled crack, and name it the "Liberty Anvil" lol. Keep up the good work man. You're on the right track with content, as well as editing. I've seen videos from creators that have been doing it much longer, that don't come off as well as your first video has. Also one last thing from a mutual hater of any flying stinging insect (honey bees excluded of course), here's a protip. If you're not around a source of ignition IE your forge lol. A can of el cheapo walmart carb cleaner will quite literally drop a psychotic, out for blood wasp or hornet, mid flight, right to the ground, and almost immediately thereafter, dead. Just don't use on bees. They only sting to defend or protect, and they make delicious honey, and polinate needed plants. Wasps on the other hand, were only created to fuck up your day, and there is no convincing me otherwise.
Yah Zane, very well done! I'm very interested in Makume Gane and cant find much content and really no good instructional information on RU-vid. You might have found your niche. I'm not kidding.
Very nice work, just a side note, there is no moisture in your metal, H2O or moisture is a by-product of combustion as well as CO2, with the water vapor condensing on the relatively cooler metal. Once the metal heats up the moisture no longer condenses. A good indicator of temperature none the less. Nice tutorial, thanks for sharing.
Absolutely brilliant vid.Congratulations.But I got a few questions.I'd prefer to make a bracelet.So I would need to finish with a bullet six and a half inches long by one inch wide using copper, brass,nickel and silver disks(to stay close to your pattern).Do you think this would work?.Thanking you in anticipation.
That sounds awesome! And i do believe it can work. I’ve usedwith all of those metals before in mokume, and my only hesitation is the brass, it doesn’t like to play nice with the other metals at high temps. The biggest factor in forge welding mokume is making sure the involved metals have a similar melting temperature. Other than that, have fun! Feel free to message me with any questions
Funny. I've made some damascus by hand (which btw is a pain in the ass and very time consuming if you dont have a press) so figured this would be simple to do with softer materials but had absolutely no success and ended up wasting $10 worth of quarters. had them nice and clean, wrapped them with wire exactly like in video then proceeded to throw in forget. once I had everything up to temp I started hammering quarters and looked like they were nice and welded. tossed back in forge to get back up to temp and 1st hammer blow to them after 2nd heat cycle the quarters all blew apart. tried it twice and both time quarters just blew apart. idk wtf happened but gonna try again and if same thing happens I'm done trying to make the shit because I'm not gonna keep wasting money away that can be spent on other things. Lol
Why, there wouldn't be a copper layer to make the pattern. Plus the nickel on the quarters make a good "silver" look without the price. And half the work is done for you at the mint!
When you squared it up did it delaminate? And then you just heated it up more pounded it back together? I cannot get passed the delamination it’s devastating every time I’ve gotten like billets I guess but when thrown on the ground or just tapping it it never sounds like one solid piece it drives me insane
It always delaminates when I forge it on its side, I just get it back up to forge welding temp and reset the welds. It’s a pain but you can have success in the end. Just make sure you finish off your billet by getting it to FW temp and setting the final welds on the piece. This helps make sure everything is sealed up in the end
Ive struggled with delam aswell.... ive read about omce you set the initial weld you can grind the edges off to get rid of all the knerling and it helps... have you tried that?
I wish! The reason I use quarters is that they have a copper core with a nickel coating. That’s what gives the looks of alternating layers. Nickels are one solid metal so wouldnt give the same look
@@JR-pj8pz that’s true, but they are mixed together as a homogenous metal when quarters are separated layers. Doing this with Nickels just give you a silver colored billet
saw another video of a fella with an electric crucible that does 760 c with a steel compression bracket. cool to see someone just use backyard blacksmith stuff and get a good result... at least apparently. how many delaminated billets did you go through before getting a good one?