Carving an Organic Ring in Titanium
Some call it 'Timascus', others, 'Mokuti'. About half-a-dozen other names for the technique probably exist, as well, to bewilder and beguile the buyer. At the end of the day, it's usually one form or another of a technique metallurgists call 'forge-welding', applied to semi-exotic alloys like titanium and zirconium. Forge-welding techniques, when applied to artwork, often yield stunning and intricate, organic-looking results. I personally prefer to think of all of these metallic arts as a subset of a classical Japanese technique of patterning forge-welded precious metals for use in jewelry and ornamentation.
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木目金 「MOKUME-GANE」
Pronounced "mo-ku-may gah-nay", it is a very descriptive name for the artform, at least to Japanese speakers. Directly translated to English, it means "wood-grain metal" and consists of three kanji:
木 ー tree, wood
目 ー eye, class, look, insight
金 ー gold, money, metal
I feel this is an apt description, as I have always been drawn to the technique for its impressions of something more organic in nature than just a simple hunk of metal. Somehow, by carefully combining multiple disparate alloys together while masterfully maintaining heterogeneity, an object worth more than its constituent parts is forged. While the Japanese technique traditionally employs the use of precious metals like gold, silver, platinum, and the like, it has become just as applicable to exotic alloys in recent years with the proliferation of new, modern low-oxygen forging techniques.
Now, through the meticulous management of inert atmospheres, careful cleaning of raw materials, and use of electrically-heated furnaces, it is possible to forge-weld exotic metals like titanium, vanadium, zirconium, and even less-exotic but none-the-less challenging metals like copper and aluminum. All of these metals are highly reactive and would normally form thick oxide layers at the interfaces between two metals, which would act as a non-stick coating and prevent the weld from forming properly. All this to say that while the raw materials themselves are not nearly as valuable as the noble metals (take titanium vs. gold, for instance) the mere fact that the mokume-gane technique is at all applicable is quite the feat.
Rings
One of my favorite applications of mokume-gane lies in ring-making. The organic textures and qualities achievable in just a simple band are incredible. The wood-grain appearance goes a long way to accentuate forms that are otherwise plain. That does not mean, however, that simple bands are all that mokume-gane is good for.
Inspiration
One of my greatest sources of inspiration lately has come from a ring-maker collective Sora, in Japan. They have been doing incredible work with exotic mokume-gane for quite some time, and apply many delicate carving techniques to the metal to expose cross-sectional texture and banding. I really admire their artisans' creative thinking. For instance, their "Fjord" design makes great use of these techniques.
I especially admire the work of Sora's founder, So Maruyama. He takes exotic mokume-gane carving and forging techniques a step further with incredible finishing techniques as well. One of the characteristic features of many of his works, recently, has been a surface finish highlighting not only the stark color contrasts of the titanium alloys he's known to use, but also the crystalline grain underlying the metal. One of his assistants manages an Instagram page for him:
I find each ring that Maruyama-san makes to be otherworldly and perplexing, like some alien artifact that is still somehow so very human at its core. Common sentiments in the captions of his posts include ideas such as 'void', 'infinity', 'time', and 'resonance'. The art certainly resonates with me.
My Turn
After admiring and studying techniques like these for so long, I eventually felt compelled to break from my usual techniques to try something new, myself. While I lack the tools and the requisite inside knowledge of craftsmanship, I sought to create an inspired work of my own. Instead of faithfully imitating the masters, I hoped to produce something new and original from the inspiration they give me.
Stock
I often start my rings from bar stock since many of my creations are turned on the lathe. Bar stock is naturally easy to work on the lathe because cylinders. :P For instance, this post features a collection of titanium mokume-gane bar-stock I have used before:
The stock I chose for this project contains five different alloys of zirconium and titanium, all layered and twisted.
The stock of choice after I sized the inner diameter.
Rough Carving and Forming
I have no clue what craftsmen normally use to carve away large amounts of hig-durability alloys like Ti, and I'm sure that whatever the tool is it probably isn't "pedestal grinder" but I have to work with what I've got. After achieving the rough inner dimensions for the ring size that I wanted (US9.5) I just began tearing away at the piece. With the metal as my canvas and a 2800RPM rock as my paintbrush, well, that metaphor kinda falls apart.
Ti and Zr are both extremely pyrophoric; look at those fireworks!
I held the piece in the jaws of a wrench since the friction of grinding was putting a lot of heat into the piece. For the roughing, the coarse wheel worked pretty well. I did some intermediate shaping on the fine wheel, but I needed a tool with a more delicate touch for the finishing steps.
Various stages of carving on the pedestal grinder.
Foredom Flex-Shaft, My Beloved
One of my most versatile tools, the flex-shaft is like a Dremel tool but with variable speed controllable from a foot-operated pedal (like a sewing machine). It has interchangeable hand pieces as well, but I only needed the rotary 3-jaw chuck to hold tungsten carbide burrs. I used a variety of burrs and a good amount of patience to work out the fine details and achieve a pre-polish surface.
Various stages of fine detail carving with carbide burrs, and pre-polish with abrasive composite wheels.
I also like using silicone composite abrasive disks in the flex shaft which allowed me to get a pretty good pre-polish. With hard exotics like Ti and Zr, polishing is always a long and laborious task. Metals like those are somewhat abrasion-resistant and so can be harder to polish when compared to softer metals like brass, copper, silver, or gold. Final polishing was achieved with a diamond polishing compound loaded onto a cotton cloth disk on my pedestal grinder.
After the final polish.
By this point, it was time to completely wreck the final polish. Why do I do this to myself?
Acid Etch
The high-shine polish was likely not strictly necessary, since I had always intended to acid-etch the ring, anyways, but I wanted to start with a clean, unblemished surface so that the only texture revealed would be crystal grain. When many metals are attacked by acid, the chemical reaction reveals the crystal grain structure within the metal itself. I had previously annealed and heat-treated the raw metal stock in such a way as to try to grow crystal grain size for a more noticeable effect. I was silly enough to forget to take photos of the ring at this stage, so unfortunately I cannot show the details of crystal surface before anodization.
Trial by Fire
The final step involved fire and looks like magic: that's right, I'm talking about flame-anodization! It is in this phase that all of my hard work either pays off or gets reset back to the pre-polish step. Anodization is always nerve-wracking because if I make a mistake it takes hours to recover, and the piece is irrevocably changed. By the grace of Hephaestus, I was successful, however, and the ring's finish turned out gorgeous.
Images of the crystalline structures revealed by etching, und a microscope.
Results + Gallery
I think the colors came out great. The ice-blue color complements the crystalline surface finish quite nicely. The organic, wavy form is unlike anything I have done before and while it isn't the most comfortable ring I have made, it isn't uncomfortable to wear. The coolest part is that there are about 8 different distinct orientations to wear the ring, depending on the direction and rotation. Some are more comfortable or more interesting-looking than others. They are all fun!
Thanks for reading,
~Joseph
