Something similar that I would like to see is a copper aluminium "DAMASCUS" made in the same way. the aluminium however should diffuse into the copper forming aluminium bronze (a bright gold color) which assuming the copper is thick enough should form alternating bands with unalloyed copper. Might need to be done in an oxygen free environment though... maybe I can form the initial stack and get it welded together in my vacuum chamber and send it to you for the rest of the forging?
@Alec Steele @Cody'sLab duuuudes, do this! Awesome UA-cam collaborations are awesome! To forge-weld two different metals, do they need to be fairly close in melting points? I'm wondering what a "damascus" of, say, brass and silver or brass and nickel or similar, would look like.
As nice as the final nickel-copper damascus looks, my thoughts are that its too prone to oxidation and discoloration - how can this be prevented, otherwise you might make a nice sword or whatever - but the copper patterns will just go black and green in no time.
@Ending YouX no he didn't... at one point he said that he refused an offer to go on the show because he wanted to focus on his business at the time... he did appear in a short called Forged in Britain though
That has got to be without question the most stunning color I've seen come out of a forge. I would try machining some of down and see if it could be made into the body of a fine pen the weight alone with that pattern would be something I would buy from your site without hesitation
You can heat the copper to turn it more red. Doing so also makes the Nickel brighter. If you can get the heat right, match the copper to a red wood to make the hardware and handle for a really bright Damascus project. If you can preserve the woodgrain at the intersection of the two, you could make a very interesting transition between the two.
I’m thinking a piece for a belt buckle would be sweet with the creamy brown of leather. And save some for a bolster and pommel for a Bowie knife would be pretty jazzy
I personally like the twisted pattern better. It's really bold and beautiful. I would love to see you try your hand at some more delicate work, say a twisted doghead bracelet or a ring of some sorts. Break from your usual which is knives and swords and make something purely decorative and fancy! No matter what, have fun with it and don't stop being you!
I agree, sometimes minimalistic patterns are more than enough to bring out the beauty and the other pattern isnt half bad but the contrast and colour is kind of lost...
The twisted pattern looks like stained wood. PS: Copper makes your hands stink, and long term nickel exposure induces allergic reaction. Some people are born allergic. NOT a good handle material.
It’s nice to see someone skilled playing with this technique. I made my mother a makume gane ring from nickel silver and copper, back in high school. Strong and beautiful. She’s still got it 20 years later.
If you take a torch to it and heat it up just a bit, it'll turn the copper a red color and leave the nickel bright. That'll get your pattern to show quite a bit better. In my opinion, an Icecream scooper would be cool; might be a little difficult to maintain the pattern. I don't know, have fun with it!
That was a yellow flame. It wasnt the copper or nickle. Its possible if alec was using iron as a welding medium it was that but the most likely cause of a flame like that is a carbon base such as acetone
@@activistvoorrechtenvankaas2810 Wrong it can't be Copperdioxide for the fact that those two elements wouldn't bond together do to the electrons unless there was another element to balance it like aluminum, or chromium. What you are thinking of is actually Copperperoxide which produces that green color.
t164z228 omg alec could totally do a forged ford series where he forges and machines parts for his little pickup! Thatd be rad. Maybe you can get one of the auto channels to partner up with you on that Alec. Ask Colin Furze if he has a moment to spair from building giant robots!
Hey Alec, I was just discussing damascus steel with my father and how much I respect your skills. At any rate, the idea cane up of what would be the result of taking multiple pieces of already layered steel, and fusing them together so it was essentially damascus to the nth power. Could you do a video on this sometime?
Honestly i found this channel through recommended and ive only watched about 5 to 10 videos but honestly it was the best recommended feed click of my life. Such an intriguing channel and so much fun to watch. 😊
Just found it today in my recommended. Way better production value than any other forging channel out there and he seems to be a pretty damn proficient smith.
Michael Cardona, I think your idea is grate, a set of really sleek assassin type daggers would be an awesome task to achieve in itself, especially with that twisted billet shaved down & profiled for some super fine scales.
That would be nice, combined with a matching combat / survival knife....unfortunately since the UK has banned all cartridge based handguns I highly doubt this will happen from Alec.
@Holden Mcgroine it was originally copper was too expensive to make pennies out of so in about 1992 they started to make them out of copper coated zinc. Now zinc is getting more expensive than copper.
I love your videos so much any time I feel stressed or depressed, I know that I can simply just watch your videos. Every time I watch one of your videos I am just amazed by the amount of focus and work you put into each piece it is just astounding, and I just want to thank you so much for taking the time to make these videos you have a true talent for forging and video making so thank you.
Use that to make the guard for your next damascus sword project!!! Use it for a guard, bolster and pommel. It'll look insane with a damascus sword!! Practical? Probably not. Ridiculously cool looking? Absolutely.
You are really inspiring. You’re try anything attitude and desire to make things work is infectious. Woodworking is my preferred hobby over heavy metal but you’ve inspired me to keep trying new things. Thank you. 🙏
So what you’ve got there is a voltaic pile - the solid parts of an acid battery. Add an acid, even a mild acid, to the surface and I wonder what happens? Even the acid in your saliva would be enough to cause a reaction in the starting block before all the hammering. I’d love to touch it with some vinegar on my fingers. It wouldn’t be much of a charge, it won’t spark or anything, but I’d love to see what a voltmeter says
Make a set of scales for a knife or even an old school straight razor! On second thought do a Damascus straight razor with a set of scales from this material.
That looks lovely! I guess too soft to make any kind of useful blade, but could be good for a guard or handle for another project. A thought: This is Japanese in origin? How about another Katana, but this time a traditionally made blade and use some of the mokume gane for the habaki/seppa/tsuba/menuki... maybe scabbard (saya)? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katana ua-cam.com/video/CNuEDtnVdeM/v-deo.html ...maybe not actually start with smelting your own iron/steel, but go the rest of the traditional route as another learning exercise?
Its awesome that you don't have to deal with the scale losses like you do with typical Damascus. It looks as tho the only material you're losing is what's being taken off by milling, sanding and cutting. Those patterns turned out great.
Titanium oxidises quite readily when heated over 100C (vast majority of white dyes are titanium oxide based) so it's not entirely stable. The tricky part of working with it is that it needs to be incredibly hot to do anything with (likely beyond the capabilities of the shop forge) and it's naturally super hard so cutting/drilling it requires specialist (read: expensive) tooling. The common misconception is that titanium is a rare metal when in truth it's quite common, the rarity is more on account of the lack of facilities that can process it in any meaningful way
デュジア256 Ah, sweet. So my memory wasn't as bad as I thought it was. Glad to see that, even though I haven't had to speak Japanese in so long, a lot of it's still in there somewhere.
You would need to be careful with solvents made to remove the copper fowling when cleaning. So long as you took them off or were careful you should be fine. Oils I am not sure of, maybe they would stain the copper a bit? My money is on it not doing much.
You'd have to do loads of calculations for the dice to be weighted correctly, with the difference in density between the two, which adds a whole new level of weight distribution... then again, I'd never actually roll Alec Steele made dice! (although I'd be very very tempted)
Copper and nickel are very close in density, so as long as you could assure the pattern was fairly symmetrical, it shouldn't cause too many balance issues.
@@CrazyNerdInventor there is a possibility of attaching a hardened edge to a spine of a softer material. I've come across it in a few blacksmithing books. It's basically just the old method of forging some implements with limited high quality steel. If he forms his billet around 3 sides of a harder core steel if he has the right flux and heat he could get a very usable blade with that pattern on most of it. Think like the soft cap around old single edge razors for seamstresses and scraping tape off glass. It's doable but it would be tricky
The twisted one looks like a tiger stripe... looking sweet! What about using some for a bolster for another project, or maybe a handle for a frying pan (keep the pan simple) for making your lunches at the workshop? Lacquer it up to keep the nickel from causing skin allergies and to keep the copper bright?
That's curious, I was thinking that as well. It'd make one hell of a nice ring. At least a few slices. There's still even more potential for the rest of it. :D
+See, the thing is Are you sure it turns your skin green? This is the first time I hear (*read) of this. Copper is very resistant to oxidization unlike other metals, and since people always used copper jewelry then something doesn't add up.
You can get great results by sanding clean sheet metal to a bright finish and immediately coat with flux paste. (The oxide layer on nickel stays very thin, but you might as well flux this too). It is best to make the outside layers of nickel, not copper. Oxygen is the great enemy of hot copper. Copper and silver really don't behave well in an oxidizing atmosphere. Silver looses oxygen fast while molten hot. Silver absorbs oxygen rapidly as it cools towards a solid state, and it needs to be oxygen free for best results as it cools to a solid. As soon as you get a great bond, let the sandwich cool. You will need to anneal at intervals, but do the work close to room temperature, unless you can exclude oxygen by completely surrounding the copper with nickel, or exclude oxygen from the work environment. Copper oxidizes deeply and fast when hot, so heated surfaces should already be coated with flux or some other passivation layer. An inert gas really helps. Just Nitrogen & CO2 is OK. Nickel, Tin or Aluminum are good passivation layers for Copper as their oxide layers tend to stay thin.
David - "Copper and silver really don't behave well in reducing (oxygen) atmosphere." An oxygen atmosphere is not a reducing atmosphere - it's an oxidizing atmosphere. A reducing atmosphere would be carbon monoxide, or hydrogen sulfide (pew!) - one in which oxygen is preferentially removed by the atmosphere from the workpiece. Since it's impractical to work in such an atmosphere, the results are obtained by using flux to surround the material and isolate it from, and bind the oxygen to, the flux.
Alec, I would love to see anything decorative. I would especially love to see a Brian Brazeal style crane like you have done before. I think that would be a great piece of art plus a good way to learn how Mokume Gane reacts.
You can make a balisong (butterfly knife) from it. You dont need a lot of material just for the blade, because its not really big. If you have enough material you can make the handles out of mokume gane as well. :)
I think the small one would be super awesome as a blade for a letter opener with cheery tree handle. Just think about it, coming in to a office to meet the boss and this super premium knife with those absolutely beautiful waves is on the table. It world sett the bar of that meting right when the customer walks in to the rom.
I learned a lot from this video. Keep making info loaded projects where you commentary the process. Class oriented info fun. Do society a favor and share ur knowledge the best way.
Timothy Warner oh it’s really weird. I was taking 400 level physics in college and the things they said in those classes blew my mind on so many different occasions. Craziest one ever was when I found out light is keeping you from falling to the center of the earth
The metals are swirled and patterned but not truly fused. Different metals different electronegative potentials so galvanic corrosion will eventually etch the softer metal out. Mokume can be sublimely beautiful on decorative pieces ... but it's soft-wearing, not very durable or lasting. Not suitable for chopsticks, cutlery, even some jewellery - because frequent/constant exposure to liquids will accelerates the (bad tasting!) corrosion.
i fking envy this man...i wish i had your workspace and tools to play and do things as you do...jeezzz...that's sooo freaking awesome...i bet the end results pay off the heat
to me not all it's reported to money, the fact that hes doing this kind of work it's awesome, i wish i had a workshop @ that i could try to learn and do this thing, for sure i would love such a job beside programming and electrical engineering. of course money are important, i'm not an hypocrite and if he make so much it's even better, he can learn and buy new toys, material to do so, so it's more awesome:)))
Honestly I envy any workspace at all. Living in an apartment kind of sucks with how limited you are. Even if I had a garage I could do so much more. As it is I have to keep my projects relatively small. If you can't do it with hand tools you can't do it.
@@koloth5139 agree with you, i've lived in country side all my life and now i've moved for uni in an apartment, even tho it's 3 room one, it suck, i could never get used to it, after 3 years i still miss my tools and lil work i could find at home in free time, here...all i can do it's to lay down my ass or by neighboors will jump on me...
The changes in color was the heat conducting in copper Copper is a better conductor of heating and cooling than nickel and the crusty when heating and twisting was due to the amount of nickel oxidation. Beautiful work brother I'm new to the channel and I really like the chemistry of metal you work with Thank you for these videos 👍
I am surprised I just discovered your channel (thanks evan and katelyn) as I am a metal worker myself so its weird this is my first time here, but I really appreciate the editing done in the videos. Getting the power hammer to match with the song was awesome.
It would be cool if he could find a nonprofit that encourages kids to get in to ancient crafts and raise some money for them by encouraging us to donate. Does england give tax breaks for giving to charity?
It would be dope to use that Japanese Damascus to make a Japanese tsuka (hilt and it's parts) for the katana type sword you have already made. Maybe use the mokume gane to make all the details on the handle for that Damascus katana. The parts I'm referring to are the kashira, menuki, fuchi, and the tsuba. Maybe instead make a Saya (scabbard) for the katana? This kind of scabbard has a few details that could be made from this nickel-copper mokume gane and it would make a nice touch to add to a previously made item and do something new at the same time!
I made a suggestion in the comments while he was doing the katana to use mokume gane for the fittings, would be sweet to see it finally happen, I realy enjoyed that build
That would make beautiful knife handle bolsters or rivets perhaps? Absolutely gorgeous! This would make a fabulous ring, and do it similar to copper superconductor rings. Non-ferrous alloy forging is cool too! Thanks A.Steele!
Something similar that I would like to see is a copper aluminium "DAMASCUS" made in the same way. the aluminium however should diffuse into the copper forming aluminium bronze (a bright gold color) which assuming the copper is thick enough should form alternating bands with unalloyed copper. Might need to be done in an oxygen free environment though... maybe I can form the initial stack and get it welded together in my vacuum chamber and send it to you for the rest of the forging?
@Alec Steele @Cody'sLab duuuudes, do this! Awesome UA-cam collaborations are awesome!
To forge-weld two different metals, do they need to be fairly close in melting points? I'm wondering what a "damascus" of, say, brass and silver or brass and nickel or similar, would look like.
Yes please do this.
As nice as the final nickel-copper damascus looks, my thoughts are that its too prone to oxidation and discoloration - how can this be prevented, otherwise you might make a nice sword or whatever - but the copper patterns will just go black and green in no time.
Come on cody, 8 months late
@@Ckcdillpickle better late then never.
I would love to see you compete on Forged In Fire!!
@Ending YouX no he didn't... at one point he said that he refused an offer to go on the show because he wanted to focus on his business at the time... he did appear in a short called Forged in Britain though
I feel that it’s an insult to forgers tho,
@@evelynfarfellwooosh1219 how do?
@@evelynfarfellwooosh1219 how
On blaze channel in Uk he has a series called forged in Steele I think
The first attempt had a beautiful organic pattern to it. Probably because of the imperfect twisting action.
100% agreed. The first one blew my mind. Amazing.
Anyone else know basically nothing about blacksmithing but still watching these whole videos during quarantine? Lol
“Quarantine”, haven’t heard that word in sometime
That has got to be without question the most stunning color I've seen come out of a forge. I would try machining some of down and see if it could be made into the body of a fine pen the weight alone with that pattern would be something I would buy from your site without hesitation
I was thinking a pen too! I’ve been on a fountain pen kick lately, that sure would make for a beautiful one
I was thinking of a letter opener myself
There was a kickstarter or a company that was selling just that idea iir, saw it a few years back.
YES PLEASE!!!!!!!
You can heat the copper to turn it more red. Doing so also makes the Nickel brighter. If you can get the heat right, match the copper to a red wood to make the hardware and handle for a really bright Damascus project. If you can preserve the woodgrain at the intersection of the two, you could make a very interesting transition between the two.
It already looks like red wood. Make a knife and give it a nice polished red wood handle. It'd look AMAZING.
I'd buy it.
Just use this for a handle
I’m thinking a piece for a belt buckle would be sweet with the creamy brown of leather. And save some for a bolster and pommel for a Bowie knife would be pretty jazzy
Bolsters/guard for a damascus knife
Rockey509 dude you are so right. I really hope he makes like a bad ass knife out of it. It's so awesome looking.
I personally like the twisted pattern better. It's really bold and beautiful. I would love to see you try your hand at some more delicate work, say a twisted doghead bracelet or a ring of some sorts. Break from your usual which is knives and swords and make something purely decorative and fancy! No matter what, have fun with it and don't stop being you!
PaintballBomber92 i second that. I think alec should try some jewelry or some decorative pieces.
How about some decorative handle for his axe or mace?? I wish he would make the skyrim ebony mace
I agree, sometimes minimalistic patterns are more than enough to bring out the beauty and the other pattern isnt half bad but the contrast and colour is kind of lost...
mokume gane isn't really suitable for handle material... at most, it could be used for scales on a knife...
The twisted pattern looks like stained wood.
PS: Copper makes your hands stink, and long term nickel exposure induces allergic reaction. Some people are born allergic. NOT a good handle material.
It’s nice to see someone skilled playing with this technique. I made my mother a makume gane ring from nickel silver and copper, back in high school. Strong and beautiful. She’s still got it 20 years later.
"WOW, THEY'RE STAYING TOGETHER, THAT'S AMAZING!!"
lol your enthusiasm makes me feel like maybe life is worth it
... it is
Jesus this took a turn, start by watching the sun rise and set every day.
A super rad fountain pen would be a great project for this. Help hone your lathe skills and milling accuracy
That should be reeeaaaly nice
That or the ice-cream scoop
Great idea ! i would also love to see him apply his precision and skills on such a tiny and yet beautiful object :)
oh no now i want one
Use the first one as handle scales for a small knife and the second one for a larger knifes handle.
I agree - using them for handle scales would be awesome
i was thinking the same handle scales for a Damascus bowie
THIS ! I would def like to see a handle made . Also reminds me of tiger stripes .. maybe tiger handle 🤔 or am i just pushing it now lol
If not the full scales, I Inlay a large version of his touchmark into a wood scale such as ebony or cocobolo
if he used it as inlays then the rest could go on as a guard and pommel
Dude, those hammer blows to the bass line was probably the coolest thing I've seen for a while. Awesome editing!!
I say Mokume Gane ice cream scoop. It would be a beautiful hand forged thing to have.
Keith the woodwright UPVOTE THIS
Streaming a screaming man eating icecreme would be a dream, having a mokume scoop would make it cool as ice.
Keith the woodwright thats an awesome idea man!
Up!
YESSSSS
nobody:
alec steele: let's make some pewdiepie alloy
I commented the same thing, and even tho I feel stupid I'm too lazy to delete it
Making a pewdiepie knife for him would be great
Forget pewdiepie. That would be a waste of good metal lol
Prepperjon says a nobody
Came here to say this.
If you take a torch to it and heat it up just a bit, it'll turn the copper a red color and leave the nickel bright. That'll get your pattern to show quite a bit better. In my opinion, an Icecream scooper would be cool; might be a little difficult to maintain the pattern. I don't know, have fun with it!
Seconding this, a fiery/shiny icecream scoop sounds awesome haha
Good thinking!
BurlyWoodWorks on the topic of kitchen ware, he could make some moscow mule mugs out of the makume gane
Coating the metals in flammable acetone is likely the reason they caught fire while welding.
Acetone evaporates really quickly
It might be the remains of the WD40 burning off.
That was a yellow flame. It wasnt the copper or nickle. Its possible if alec was using iron as a welding medium it was that but the most likely cause of a flame like that is a carbon base such as acetone
Copper naturally changes flames to green
Yes the green flames were from the Cu oxidizing. I'm kind of shocked that the "crust" wasn't green.
the green flame is the copper oxidising rapidly like the color green in fireworks
coperdioxide, yeah
@@activistvoorrechtenvankaas2810 Wrong it can't be Copperdioxide for the fact that those two elements wouldn't bond together do to the electrons unless there was another element to balance it like aluminum, or chromium. What you are thinking of is actually Copperperoxide which produces that green color.
*captain knowitall* everyone that came probably knew that.
The Green colour in firework is CopperOXIDE wich is burning
No no no....its caused by the Green Lantern corps...dont you people know anything....sheesh!
Suggested use:
The core of a bronze sword. Mokume Gane in the center, bronze on the edge and crossguard, perhaps a maple or rosewood grip...
That'd be one sexy ass blade
I would love seeing it on a damascus steel blade as the other pieces, the pommel and hand guard etc... it would be sick...
Maybe something akin to a japanese San-Mai, except instead of different grades of steel, a piece a bronze stacked between two pieces of Mokume Gane
The twist Mokume would make a really nice guard for a bowie knife.
I dunno what's more beautiful: this golden red color or how it'll look when the copper oxides.
oxidizes*
Absolutely makes my day seeing how excited he gets when the pattern is cool!
Truck door handles. Imagine your truck with door handles made of that hakuna mattata!
t164z228 just handles? Do the whole bumper in the hibachi mane
t164z228 omg alec could totally do a forged ford series where he forges and machines parts for his little pickup! Thatd be rad. Maybe you can get one of the auto channels to partner up with you on that Alec. Ask Colin Furze if he has a moment to spair from building giant robots!
That would make a wonderful day!
Make the spoon looking door handles like on Bitchin Rides.
What a wonderfule phrase!
👏 Metal review 👏
👏 Metal review 👏
redking36 👏👏 METAL REVIEW! 👏👏...👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏 👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏 👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏
@@HagenYHD every body clap your hands! 👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏
Best reference comment
@@WhoTookThomas112 take it back now y'all
this looks like pewds background
10/10 pp
Everybody else: Copper and nickel Damascus
Me, an intellectual: *PEWDIEPIE METAL*
Pewdiepieum
Deadass
Your next project should be a set of Damascus chisels as a gift for your dad for Father’s Day he would love them since he is a carpenter
Make an "inverted knife" letter opener with it: Blade is wood, handle is mokume gane.
Dave Roth that’s hella good
Very nice. I'm thinking it's too soft for a blade but how about handles? I think it would go well as the handle of that hunting knife you just made.
the handles themselves i would say no but for the guard or the pommel it would be pretty good imo
You could make a blade from it and work harden it by peening the edge outand doing a little touch up on it afterwards
I was thinking handles as well
Like the blade, the guard has to be as strong as possible since it too must stop blows from another blade. The pommel would look good.
As a handle it might do well to balance out a heavier blade. Pommel would be good but I think it wouldn't show off the material enough
Hey Alec, I was just discussing damascus steel with my father and how much I respect your skills. At any rate, the idea cane up of what would be the result of taking multiple pieces of already layered steel, and fusing them together so it was essentially damascus to the nth power. Could you do a video on this sometime?
Honestly i found this channel through recommended and ive only watched about 5 to 10 videos but honestly it was the best recommended feed click of my life. Such an intriguing channel and so much fun to watch. 😊
Schmit GaMeS too honest. Honestly.
Just found it today in my recommended. Way better production value than any other forging channel out there and he seems to be a pretty damn proficient smith.
That power hammer sounds like me after climbing two flights of stairs
Make two handles for a matching dagger set
Michael Cardona I was thinking a guard and pommel but have an ebony hilt
Like a Seaxe and a throwing dagger? That would be cool
Michael Cardona, I think your idea is grate, a set of really sleek assassin type daggers would be an awesome task to achieve in itself, especially with that twisted billet shaved down & profiled for some super fine scales.
Even better? A silverware set. Knife, fork, spoon. With super fancy handles.
Mac Jones..
Great minds think alike
“Well I don’t know how we caught it on fire.”
This is not hate, just made me laugh!
That would look AMAZING on a nickel plated 1911 for its pistol grips.
That would be nice, combined with a matching combat / survival knife....unfortunately since the UK has banned all cartridge based handguns I highly doubt this will happen from Alec.
Phillip Kirkpatrick no they can have had guns but don’t they need to have 12” barrels?
Phillip Kirkpatrick and I don’t think there is a law against making the grips for one?
He would need either some grips to duplicate or a chopped in half receiver to do it
Semi-automatics are limited to 22 rimfire as well....so good luck on a 1911 .22lr and a 12 inch barrel, lol
This is the first time I've heard the phrase "holy granola that stuffs not cheap "
welcome to alec steele
@Holden Mcgroine it was originally copper was too expensive to make pennies out of so in about 1992 they started to make them out of copper coated zinc. Now zinc is getting more expensive than copper.
Holden Mcgroine are you saying you need zinc to have testosterone?
I have a friend that says stuff like that or “Holy Crackers” lol
He doesn’t use swear words at all not even light weight stuff like damn or shite etc
I read this just as Alec said it.
I love your videos so much any time I feel stressed or depressed, I know that I can simply just watch your videos. Every time I watch one of your videos I am just amazed by the amount of focus and work you put into each piece it is just astounding, and I just want to thank you so much for taking the time to make these videos you have a true talent for forging and video making so thank you.
at 3:12 roughly, right before the transition, you can see the metal do some kind of strange wave pattern. Very interesting, I wonder what causes that.
Use that to make the guard for your next damascus sword project!!! Use it for a guard, bolster and pommel. It'll look insane with a damascus sword!! Practical? Probably not. Ridiculously cool looking? Absolutely.
You have the right idea!
That'll make a beautiful bolster.
Beat me to it. Damascus fixed blade, bolster from the twist stock, stabilized maple scales.
Shaun Walker or Osage scales
Osage with a good grain pattern could work. Something with a little heart wood in it...
i thought im not the only one who think the same, but damn, i thought you said lobster
Wow that looks beautiful!
Love your channel!
Try making a knive handle, or try to carve someting like a tiny antelope skull out of it!
Freizeitflugsphäre yeah I think that a knife handle would be awesome
You are really inspiring. You’re try anything attitude and desire to make things work is infectious. Woodworking is my preferred hobby over heavy metal but you’ve inspired me to keep trying new things. Thank you. 🙏
Try something really delicate: Use the Twist Mokume to make Frames for your glasses.
Make an insert in to a putter out of it. Copper produces buttery soft feel when you strike the ball.
10:59 Alec goes full Tom & Jerry on us
WAAAAHOOHOOHOO that is quality comedy
So what you’ve got there is a voltaic pile - the solid parts of an acid battery. Add an acid, even a mild acid, to the surface and I wonder what happens? Even the acid in your saliva would be enough to cause a reaction in the starting block before all the hammering.
I’d love to touch it with some vinegar on my fingers. It wouldn’t be much of a charge, it won’t spark or anything, but I’d love to see what a voltmeter says
Make a set of scales for a knife or even an old school straight razor!
On second thought do a Damascus straight razor with a set of scales from this material.
This. One hundred procent this
Great idea!
Vapor Trails ..
Especially! A straight razor
Use them for know handles
I bet that would complement a Damascus knife beautifully
Yeah but copper won't make a good knife
that would look awesome on a sword also if it was as strong as steel or Iron.
@@swaysauce604 he means for the handle. Not the blade
omg a pewdiepie knife
That looks stunning!!... But it's now 2:00am as I'm typing this and my mind is too sleepy to think of anything really worthy.
That looks lovely!
I guess too soft to make any kind of useful blade, but could be good for a guard or handle for another project.
A thought: This is Japanese in origin? How about another Katana, but this time a traditionally made blade and use some of the mokume gane for the habaki/seppa/tsuba/menuki... maybe scabbard (saya)?
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katana
ua-cam.com/video/CNuEDtnVdeM/v-deo.html
...maybe not actually start with smelting your own iron/steel, but go the rest of the traditional route as another learning exercise?
Its awesome that you don't have to deal with the scale losses like you do with typical Damascus. It looks as tho the only material you're losing is what's being taken off by milling, sanding and cutting. Those patterns turned out great.
Titanium Damascus is even cooler because it’s blue
Dimitri Isov but working with titanium is dangerous it doesn't melt it skips the liquid state and goes straight to the plasma state
He can use stainless steel and torch it to turn it blue.
my understanding was that titanium is remarkably unreactive in practical use cases, but I might be mistaken.
Titanium oxidises quite readily when heated over 100C (vast majority of white dyes are titanium oxide based) so it's not entirely stable. The tricky part of working with it is that it needs to be incredibly hot to do anything with (likely beyond the capabilities of the shop forge) and it's naturally super hard so cutting/drilling it requires specialist (read: expensive) tooling. The common misconception is that titanium is a rare metal when in truth it's quite common, the rarity is more on account of the lack of facilities that can process it in any meaningful way
Only one person in the world knows how to make timascus and it’s blue and pink
Mokumegane = Wooden Steel
Mokume(木目) = wood grain, -gane(金) = steel
デュジア256 Ah, sweet. So my memory wasn't as bad as I thought it was. Glad to see that, even though I haven't had to speak Japanese in so long, a lot of it's still in there somewhere.
More literally, "wood eye metal." Moku = Wood, Me = Eye, Gane = Metal.
Charles Christopher not really, 目can mean eye, or a category, or order(as in kingdom-phylum-class-order-family-genus-species).
You can translate that as wood-patterned metal
Love to have some of that as a set of 1911 grips.
That would be sweet! But I wonder if the gun cleaning solvents/oils would react poorly with the copper?
You would need to be careful with solvents made to remove the copper fowling when cleaning. So long as you took them off or were careful you should be fine. Oils I am not sure of, maybe they would stain the copper a bit? My money is on it not doing much.
Ison Tenney you would remove them during cleaning
I have a desert eagle and it would look nice with this
oof
11:00 :
"WHAHOOOOHOOOOOOOO"
literally 2 seconds later :
"Thats kinda cool, kinda cool"
would look cool as 20 sided dice, 12 sided dice, 10 sided dice, 8 sided dice, 6 sided dice, 4 sided dice.... and then in my dice collection :D
You'd have to do loads of calculations for the dice to be weighted correctly, with the difference in density between the two, which adds a whole new level of weight distribution... then again, I'd never actually roll Alec Steele made dice! (although I'd be very very tempted)
Copper and nickel are very close in density, so as long as you could assure the pattern was fairly symmetrical, it shouldn't cause too many balance issues.
Making dice must be a nightmare... How do you even cut a d20?
Its alot easier than cutting a gemstone!
bob baxter they would be my favorite DND dice
This stuff could maybe look cool as the guard and pommel of your next sword?
you should make a set of dice D4 D6 D20 and so on
TheCrazycuber I second this!
D4, d6, d8, d10, d12, d20.... That would be amazing!
YES! Dice like that would be amazing!!
I agree Tenfold
It would be easier if he had a mill I don't know if he does
The photography is superb! It is great to see the metal moving under your tools.
Its it practical? Probably not. Is it awesome? Oh yeah
It was developed for sword guards originally and is now primarily used to make jewelry.
depends what you are making from it. A blade no a hilt or pommel hell ya practical and cool
Copper alloys can be hardened to be comparable to some forms of steel. But, used as a sword against a steel weapon? I would take steel any day
I wonder too about the mechanical properties of this material.
Sad. I wanted to make a katana from this to slaughter my opponents
Looks like metallic wood.
@@the-thane I was about to say that same thing lol
Alec: I think a clean forge would be better...
Alec: So I put a piece of steel there
Steel: *makes the problem worse*
5:00 the pure enthusiasm is great
Woah. Looks like you're shaping a glowing piece of wood in some of those shots.
...Great. Now I want a power hammer.
I think that would make some gorgeous inlay material for a handle..
I wouldn't mind some of those offcuts to go onto my hatchet. ;)
I prefer the 1st twisting pattern. I know its easier but I prefer more wood-like patterns
a kitchen knife made out of this would look amazing.
I was looking for this comment! Make it happen
A survival knife made out of it would look amazing.
Very soft due to nickel and copper being soft metals.
Yeah it would be a crappy knife in terms of strength
@@CrazyNerdInventor there is a possibility of attaching a hardened edge to a spine of a softer material. I've come across it in a few blacksmithing books. It's basically just the old method of forging some implements with limited high quality steel. If he forms his billet around 3 sides of a harder core steel if he has the right flux and heat he could get a very usable blade with that pattern on most of it. Think like the soft cap around old single edge razors for seamstresses and scraping tape off glass. It's doable but it would be tricky
The twisted one looks like a tiger stripe... looking sweet! What about using some for a bolster for another project, or maybe a handle for a frying pan (keep the pan simple) for making your lunches at the workshop? Lacquer it up to keep the nickel from causing skin allergies and to keep the copper bright?
it kinda looks like tiger stripes - so make something tiger themed from it - i mean as tiger themed as you could make something, i guess!
Like a decorative claw knife
Something India themed then?
What about a tiger guard (or tsuba) for a sword or knife? Not sure how solid it would be, but you can't deny it would look good.
For the second billet, belt buckle.
I like the idea
Beat me to it lol explosion pattern belt buckle would be awesome
Belt Buckle!
Great idea 💡 Goes with his Cowboy boots 👢. Maybe the 1st billet can be made into a pocket/folding knife.
@Robert Landrum Too soft, but it would make a great handle
It looks like wood! So cool
I think a belt buckle would be cool!
Jeremy Yes for me. Lol!
I Like the Random Videos Instead of the Long Project Videos. These Are Much More Instructive as Well.
I would say a good balance between the types. I love the long series... katana was one of my favourites.
i like when people know how to write properly
Jakub Komorowski-Marcjan You Didn’t Capitalize Your “i”
Send a piece over to Patrick Adair Designs, It would make a beautiful ring...
Myguitars100 I was thanking the same thing
He already has made a Mokume Gane ring.
That's curious, I was thinking that as well. It'd make one hell of a nice ring.
At least a few slices. There's still even more potential for the rest of it. :D
cooper has been used for jewelry since the bronze age
+See, the thing is Are you sure it turns your skin green? This is the first time I hear (*read) of this. Copper is very resistant to oxidization unlike other metals, and since people always used copper jewelry then something doesn't add up.
_sprays it all with highly flammable material_ "i don't know why we caught it on fire"
Make a 12 gauge slug out of a small piece of it and send it to Tofaldermouse to shoot and test with high speed camera.
Agreed!!!
I'd like to see what a bismuth slug would do, being softer but also heavier than lead if i remember correctly (one space to the right?)
Citizen Snips he made one
MrArcher0 yeah if he had some extra peices after the project that would be a good idea but I wouldn't waste the whole thing on it lol
Bismuth isn't nearly as dense as lead. But if you want something "heavy" opt for uranium or tungsten.
Just a thought...but you could make a limited amount of "Touch Mark" Pendents to sell... :)
I hope y'all have a great day & please be safe :)
Ya this would be very nice.
I would seriously consider buying a pendant made of Mokume Gane.
Me too... and some t's
Yes that would be nice
I think an ornamental knife would look amazing especially with a dark wood handal.
Make an ornate blade possibly using tigers eye in the handle
You can get great results by sanding clean sheet metal to a bright finish and immediately coat with flux paste. (The oxide layer on nickel stays very thin, but you might as well flux this too). It is best to make the outside layers of nickel, not copper. Oxygen is the great enemy of hot copper.
Copper and silver really don't behave well in an oxidizing atmosphere. Silver looses oxygen fast while molten hot. Silver absorbs oxygen rapidly as it cools towards a solid state, and it needs to be oxygen free for best results as it cools to a solid.
As soon as you get a great bond, let the sandwich cool. You will need to anneal at intervals, but do the work close to room temperature, unless you can exclude oxygen by completely surrounding the copper with nickel, or exclude oxygen from the work environment. Copper oxidizes deeply and fast when hot, so heated surfaces should already be coated with flux or some other passivation layer.
An inert gas really helps. Just Nitrogen & CO2 is OK. Nickel, Tin or Aluminum are good passivation layers for Copper as their oxide layers tend to stay thin.
David - "Copper and silver really don't behave well in reducing (oxygen) atmosphere." An oxygen atmosphere is not a reducing atmosphere - it's an oxidizing atmosphere. A reducing atmosphere would be carbon monoxide, or hydrogen sulfide (pew!) - one in which oxygen is preferentially removed by the atmosphere from the workpiece. Since it's impractical to work in such an atmosphere, the results are obtained by using flux to surround the material and isolate it from, and bind the oxygen to, the flux.
Holy moly that billet is beautiful!
Alec, I would love to see anything decorative. I would especially love to see a Brian Brazeal style crane like you have done before. I think that would be a great piece of art plus a good way to learn how Mokume Gane reacts.
it looks like Polished Rose Wood after you cleaned it! that looks absolutely gorgeous!!
Great editing to the bass drops. Loved that.
Speaking of bass drops, do you have the name of the track?
*Sprays with acetone*, starts welding. "I don't know why it's on fire!"
I was watching this outside And all my neighbor heard was that looks crusty let's slam it
You can always tell how legit someone is by how destroyed their hands are, from making. By the looks of it you sir are a beast!
pewdiepie design
yep
Yee
there you are
It's a very nice design :D
69 mil custom play button for the pewdster
You can make a balisong (butterfly knife) from it. You dont need a lot of material just for the blade, because its not really big. If you have enough material you can make the handles out of mokume gane as well. :)
I think the small one would be super awesome as a blade for a letter opener with cheery tree handle. Just think about it, coming in to a office to meet the boss and this super premium knife with those absolutely beautiful waves is on the table. It world sett the bar of that meting right when the customer walks in to the rom.
'sweet'?
'cherry'?
I learned a lot from this video. Keep making info loaded projects where you commentary the process. Class oriented info fun. Do society a favor and share ur knowledge the best way.
Green flame is probable a little copper coming off and oxidizing in the flame outside. Sorta like how copper turns green when left outside
Mike Builds Yep. Copper flames are most certainly green. Physics does weird things like that.
Timothy Warner oh it’s really weird. I was taking 400 level physics in college and the things they said in those classes blew my mind on so many different occasions. Craziest one ever was when I found out light is keeping you from falling to the center of the earth
Timothy Warner chemistry😉
Custom chopsticks!!!!!!!
i wonder how much Chinese Alec could eat??? hes always dicing fruit :p throw some lo mein at him sam!!!!
The metals are swirled and patterned but not truly fused. Different metals different electronegative potentials so galvanic corrosion will eventually etch the softer metal out.
Mokume can be sublimely beautiful on decorative pieces ... but it's soft-wearing, not very durable or lasting.
Not suitable for chopsticks, cutlery, even some jewellery - because frequent/constant exposure to liquids will accelerates the (bad tasting!) corrosion.
i fking envy this man...i wish i had your workspace and tools to play and do things as you do...jeezzz...that's sooo freaking awesome...i bet the end results pay off the heat
You'll be even more envious to know that he makes an absolute minimum of 21k per year off this channel. Probably closer to 150k.
to me not all it's reported to money, the fact that hes doing this kind of work it's awesome, i wish i had a workshop @ that i could try to learn and do this thing, for sure i would love such a job beside programming and electrical engineering.
of course money are important, i'm not an hypocrite and if he make so much it's even better, he can learn and buy new toys, material to do so, so it's more awesome:)))
Yeah, I kinda need a few months in that shop, just to make stock to use for other cool projects I want to do.
Honestly I envy any workspace at all. Living in an apartment kind of sucks with how limited you are. Even if I had a garage I could do so much more. As it is I have to keep my projects relatively small. If you can't do it with hand tools you can't do it.
@@koloth5139 agree with you, i've lived in country side all my life and now i've moved for uni in an apartment, even tho it's 3 room one, it suck, i could never get used to it, after 3 years i still miss my tools and lil work i could find at home in free time, here...all i can do it's to lay down my ass or by neighboors will jump on me...
The changes in color was the heat conducting in copper
Copper is a better conductor of heating and cooling than nickel and the crusty when heating and twisting was due to the amount of nickel oxidation.
Beautiful work brother I'm new to the channel and I really like the chemistry of metal you work with
Thank you for these videos 👍
Make somekind of double daggers, like 2 small daggers that look the same
the same but not cause pattern
I am surprised I just discovered your channel (thanks evan and katelyn) as I am a metal worker myself so its weird this is my first time here, but I really appreciate the editing done in the videos. Getting the power hammer to match with the song was awesome.
When your working it on the hammer, it looks like forbidden butter
very attractive contrasts, excellent for blade handle furniture.
Absolutely beautiful Alec. Make a sweet dagger out of it, then auction it off for a children's charity. Maybe even a vocational education charity.
It would be cool if he could find a nonprofit that encourages kids to get in to ancient crafts and raise some money for them by encouraging us to donate. Does england give tax breaks for giving to charity?
It would be dope to use that Japanese Damascus to make a Japanese tsuka (hilt and it's parts) for the katana type sword you have already made. Maybe use the mokume gane to make all the details on the handle for that Damascus katana. The parts I'm referring to are the kashira, menuki, fuchi, and the tsuba. Maybe instead make a Saya (scabbard) for the katana? This kind of scabbard has a few details that could be made from this nickel-copper mokume gane and it would make a nice touch to add to a previously made item and do something new at the same time!
andrew ranger Agreed. I suggested a feather Damascus tanto (or wakizashi) with such a Tsuba.
I made a suggestion in the comments while he was doing the katana to use mokume gane for the fittings, would be sweet to see it finally happen, I realy enjoyed that build
That editing is everything
That would make beautiful knife handle bolsters or rivets perhaps? Absolutely gorgeous! This would make a fabulous ring, and do it similar to copper superconductor rings. Non-ferrous alloy forging is cool too! Thanks A.Steele!