Mokume Gane Pendent

Hi makers!

Today we will be making a mokume-gane pendant (moh-kum-eh gan-eh). What is mokume-gane? It is a traditional Japanese technique of layering metals to produce a contrasting wood grain and stripe effect. The resulting material is beautiful and can be used for jewelry and other metal arts.

For this project we will be forging 4 US quarters to make our mokume-gane metal for our pendant

Materials

• 4 to 6 quarters
• rubbing alcohol
• borax
• water
• small bowl
• solder
• 5/64 in. thick silver or copper jump ring
• flux
• small diameter steal wire (If forge is used)

Tools

• 3/32 drill bit
• drill or dremel (for drill bit)
• round file
• flat file
• belt sander
• belts for sander 60, 80 grit (Flat hand file will work )
• sanding paper 120, 400, 800 grit
• strong torch or forge
• small torch for soldering
• Jewelers saw or metal cutting scissors
• Long nose pliers or big set of tweezers
• 3 lb hammer
• small Anvil (back of bench vise will work)
• polish machine or flex shaft or some other machine for polishing metal
• small round nose hammer

First you will need to grab your 6 quarters and rub them with some rubbing alcohol to clean them off from any dust, finger prints oils ect. Next place them in a small bowl then put just enough water in the bowl to cover the quarters and add 1 teaspoon of borax to the water then mix the quarters in the water solution. Next you will need to take them out with your pliers or big tweezers. don't touch the quarters with your fingers to not leave any finger print oils.

Optional Tip

After you clean the coins with alcohol and before you put them in borax water solution you can wrap the quarters with a thin steal wire so you don't have to hold them with tweezers until they get to forging temp.

Wire wrapped Method

When you have finished step 1 you place the quarters in the forge and let the coins heat up until the coins get to near melting temperature. Then quickly bring them over to you anvil or bench vice and pound them a few times with your 3 lb hammer, when their color starts to fade you can than reheat and repeat the process until they turn in to one solid piece. when the coins seem to be fused together you can let them cool down. After letting them cool down you can throw the coins at the ground to check of they are fused properly together. (don't through at concrete or wood floor to not ruin the floor.) Make sure your metal stays to be 2.5-3.5 mm thick after forging

Holding In Tweezers Or Pliers Method torch required

When you have finished step 1 you grab the coins in to your tweezers or pliers and hold them until the coins get to near melting temperature.When at near melting temperature you quickly turn off your torch and go over your avail or bench vice and pound the coins until they fuse together or until they cool down. Once the coins seem to be fused together you can than let them cool down. After letting them cool down you can now throw them at the ground to check of they are fused properly together. (don't through at concrete or wood floor to not ruin the floor.) Make sure your metal stays to be 2.5-3.5 mm thick after forging

After the steps above have been completed you can now start making the pattern of the metal by ether filing down certain parts of your metal or by using a small ball point hammer to make indentations.

The bigger you make the indentations the more metal you will have to sand down!

Now that you have have made the indention and/or filed down certain parts of your metal you can now start to evenly file down the thickness of your metal to remove all dents and uneven spots. For sanding the metal I used a belt sander, 60 and 80 grit belt to smooth the surface and take the dents out. If your using a hand file it will take a lot longer.

After the dents were gone I sanded the metal with a 120 grit than a 400 grit after the 400 I used a 800 grit paper and then moved on to the next step.

When Sanding Use A Respiratory

We are going to make the crescent moon shape that will be 1 in. tall. I will be using a metal compass or you could printing a crescent moon shape on a piece of paper. If you decided to printed the moon shape on a piece of paper than you will need to cut out the shape and trace it with a marker on the metal.

After you have made the moon shape you need to grab the jewelers saw and cut the moon shape out and drill a 3/32 in. hole in the top of the moon. Now grab a file and wrap the file with a 120 grit sand paper to smooth down the edges after the cut.

jewelers saw is not required you can use metal cutting scissors for this process

Moon With String Through It

If you have chose to do the moon with the string than you will put the string through the hole and tie the string at your desired length. Now the last step is to polish.

Moon With Ring Through It (ring is for the necklace)

If you have chose to do the moon with the metal ring you will need to put a sterling silver or copper jump ring through the hole and solder the ring together (use flux when soldering). now use the 800 grit sand paper and sand down the moon and jump ring to remove all oxidized metal coating. last step is to buff and then polish the piece.

I hope that you have enjoyed this Instructable.