How Mokume Stripes Are Made


 

 

Sheets of brass, copper, nickel silver and bronze are bolted together between steel plates. This is then heated to just below the melting temperature.

 

 

The fused block of metal is removed from the clamp plates and the billet is hot forged to enhance the bond in a 1914 vintage Bradley Power Hammer.

 

 

To make stripes the billet is sawed into slabs on a metal cutting band saw.

 

 

 

A rolling mill is used to draw the metal into thin even strips.

Finished jewelry and holloware is made by cutting and shaping the permanently bonded stripes. More complex designs can be made by rearranging stripes and adding sections of plain metal. These are referred to as "Married Metals" when silver soldered into new patterns. Woodgrain effects and twists are another way of developing pattern welded material. The traditional Japanese methods from which this process derives relies heavily on woodgrain patterns, hence its name: Mokume-gane or woodgrain metal.

The best ever book on Mokume Gane by Steve Midgett (off site link) featuring work by Stephen Walker as well as many other masters of this difficult craft.

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