Mokumé Gané is a traditional
Japanese technique used to decorate metal by producing a fine
pattern that resembles
wood grain. It is used in Japanese art not only to create decorative patterns, but also to give a detailed background on exceptionally fine
metalwork.
The various steps in the process can be summarized as follows:
- Solder several sheets of differently colored metals together (up to five sheets).
- Pass the metal sandwich through a rolling mill.
- Anneal.
- Cut the piece in half and solder the two pieces together. Repeat until you achieve the desired number of layers.
- Pass the sheet through the rolling mill again, repeat from step two if you wish an even finer grain.
- Create indentations in the sheet (various methods from doming punches to burls on a flexible shaft machine can be used).
- File away the high spots on the metal sheet to reveal the grain.
- The sheet can now be rolled again to flatten it, pickled to remove firescale, and polished as you would any other piece of metal.