Adonizing Mokume.....can it be done??

[Kid9P]

Hey Guys,

Just picked up a little Gem for the knob of my Spy 007.
I would love for it to a silver/bluish color instead or the silver/reddish color shown below. I would also consider an all silver look.

Can anyone here do something like that ?

It's very small, it's meant to sit on top of the knob of a 007
Here's what it looks like:

 

[fyrstormer]

Probably the easiest thing to do would be to nickel-plate it.

 

[Kid9P]

Do you know of anyone that could nickleplate it?

 

[Kid9P]

Anyone able to point me in the right direction ? :thumbsup:

 

[Stillphoto]

Is the tube already epoxied in? If not, you could probably heat color it and get the copper to turn a blue/purple shade. Also, I don't know how well the epoxy that may be holding the vial in would do submitted to the various baths of nickel plating.

I'd be happy to heat color it for you if you can get the vial out. No guaranty that the color will be the exact shade you desire, but the copper color should be gone.

Plus as with all heat colored metals, they are subject to wear, which will remove the coloration over time. With mokume, that might actually look pretty sweet.

 

[Kid9P]

I should be receiving the head this week, hopefully tomorrow.

I don't think I will have a problem getting the trit bar out.
I little dunk in boiling water works wonders.

If I can get it out, I'll shoot you a PM.

Thanks :thumbsup:

Ray

 

[gollum]

I don't think this will be possible sorry to say.
first the vial is super glued in place
second the mokume is an alloy of copper and aluminium and a special bonding agent to give strength
I would not heat any type of mokume as the melting point is so low.
this will interfere with the molecular bond of the two metals
cheers Jason

 

[NonSenCe]

cool to know. i was just waiting for answer from you. hah..

*how about gunkote or similar coating on it.. you will loose the whole point of mokumes looks that way tho.. the glow thing is the problem in this aswell i suppose. very cool spy btw.

 

[Stillphoto]

Jason -

Thanks for chiming in on the mokume info. I know I've seen it heat colored before, but it was probably a different blend of metals...

And as with all heat coloring, I would have taken it slow, but yeah, melting the bead would have really killed me. Thanks again!

 

[gollum]

cheers

in hindsite Kid9P should have asked for a damascus bead
(made from 1095 and 15N20) it would have been the right colour from the start
however I may not have attempted it due to the extra difficulty involved in working harder steel... thems the breaks

damascus steel has hard and soft layers even when its annealed so this does cause problems when the subject is 0.345" round

maybe later I will buy some stainless damasteel to use
this will be the easiest to dremel/carve
unless someone wants to donate some to me
it is double the price and hard to get here in Australia :scowl:

chad nichols and robert eggerling sell stainless damascus in USA
I will look at getting some soon

 

[Armadillo]

Question Gollum, what tip do you use to shape damascus. I would like to shape with a dremel but don't have anything that will cut into the steel.

Thanks

 

[gollum]

I am using the smallest round head HSS tipped burrs

they are about the size of a pin head maybe slightly larger...this is the best way to get the detail shapes etc

on some softer materials I use a larger dovetail shaped head for carving a semi circle shape to make the start of an eye for the skull beads,
when I used this on damascus steel that was annealed the burr lasted only one time before it dulled and became useless

carbide burrs last much longer but you need to be careful as they can break
especially on damascus steel


hope this helps...let me know

 

[Armadillo]

Howdy Gollum, I guess I will have to anneal the steel before trying any shaping. I used a hss burr and it didn't fare too well against the hardened damascus. I knew it wouldn't last long but it didn't really even put a dent in it. Annealing wont be a problem and will make drilling much easier too methinks.
- Thanks

 

[gollum]

yes you'll have no chance to shape or drill hardened damascus...

apart from being 56+ rockwell at the least,the harder/softer layers make any shaping very difficult

if you are doing intricate detail shaping this will still be difficult when annealed...
I would recommend full normalizing (cycling at least 3 times through the critical temp of the steel)
and annealing if you need to do very detailed work

what sort of shaping are you doing...
or is it top secret