Damascus ring

Since this has popped up a couple of times lately ,I thought I would add a few things from the goldsmiths point of view.

Damascus is steel, and thus is not the most suitable for rings,unless there is a inner band of gold or silver. The Timascus and stainless damascus would be better, but still would benefit from a liner.

Mokume' Gane rings have been make for centuries. It is a layered and manipulated material of different non-ferrous metals,often copper,brass,and nickel. It is also make from precious metals such as gold, silver, and platinum.
The copper/brass mokume' will make a mark on the finger, but is relatively affordable. The gold/silver/etc. material is fairly expensive (with gold at $660 and platinum over $1500)

I will post a tutorial on making one tonight.
Stacy
 
I make titanium and black zirconium rings with inlays of mokume. I'll agree with bladsmth that steel may corrode when subjected to the right chemicals. Mokumes with copper in it also suffer from galvanic corrosion over time, so the most stable ones are with precious metals.
 
Mokumes with copper in it also suffer from galvanic corrosion over time, so the most stable ones are with precious metals.
Click to expand...

I made my wife's wedding band from gold & silver mokume (two bar twist), and it also has galvanic issues. The silver plates itself onto the gold, especially on the inside of the band where sweat provides an electrolyte. Over time, the inside looks like pure silver, and the gold lines on the outside look narrower. An occasional touchup with a bit of weak ferric chloride solution brings the pattern back.
 
Here is a basic tutorial that requires simple jewelers and forging skills and tools.

To make a 6mm wide damascus band with a silver inner band you will need a 8mm wide strip of 20 gauge silver, long enough to make a circle the size of the finished ring (about 3"), and a 1/4" thick slice off the end of a 3/4" round billet of twisted damascus.

Take the strip of silver and hard solder it into a band the size desired. Pickle and round out to the desired ring size, leaving the slight taper in the band from the ring mandrel. Set aside.

Take the damascus disc and drill a 1/4" hole in the center. Using a tapered mandrel (drift) , bring the donut shaped disc up to full forging heat and stretch/forge until it is about the desired ring size. Sand/file out the inside, making it larger ,until it will snugly fit on the inner band (from the slightly tapered side). Take off the silver band and set aside again. File the sides straight and bring the damascus ring to about 4.5mm wide. Now start filing the thickness until the ring looks like a wedding band about 2mm thick and 4.5mm wide. Harden,quenching in oil, temper at 500F,then sand and polish. Etch, then blue (and re-temper) it in niter bluing salts .(No worry about tempering too high,500-550 is OK, It isn't a blade. The reason for hardening is to give it as much rust resistance as possible, as well as wear resistance.You can skip the hardening if you want to.) The bluing will often really accentuate the pattern of the damascus, so try it. You will end up buffing it out later.

Slip the band on the flat silver circle. Peen the edges up and onto the sides,capturing the damascus. Go from side to side as you go, so the edge rolls up about 1mm on each side. Slip the ring on the mandrel and work the silver band tight to the damascus band. Clean up any dings in the silver, buff up, re-blue if needed/desired, enjoy your band.

Since resizing is not an easy process with this ring, make it a tad loose fitting and stay away from the Twinkies.

I'll try to put one of these together this weekend and take photos of the process.

Hope this gives you the idea how to do this.

The inner band could be gold, and the damascus could be mokume - you are the artist!

BTW, most damascus makers would be glad to cut off a small portion of the end of a round twist bar and sell it to you for little or nothing.
Stacy
 
Been a long time since I've posted, but a friend pointed me to this thread. I've been making Stainless Damascus (Devin Thomas) and Timascus rings for a few years now.

http://www.mitchlum.com/rings.html

Here one of mine in Timascus:

timascus1.jpg


and in Damascus:

damascus-1.jpg


I've been super busy with grad school lately, but if anyone's interested, they can email me.

~Mitch
 
bladsmth said:
Here is a basic tutorial that requires simple jewelers and forging skills and tools.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info Stacy. I've got a couple questions for you.

- Will any steel ring sizing mandrel work for hot sizing, etc?
- How much more work is it to do "comfort fit" liners? I know I've had rings of both types and can't comfortably wear many bands that aren't "comfort fit". It's just rounding the edges down right?

Thanks,

-d
 
Heres one I made a while back. I got around the rusting problem by lining the inside with clear resin....was just an experiment and I would agree that they need to be lined.....

Process was as simple as it gets....cut stock flat, heat, bend around a mandrel, solder along a nickel line in the damascus.

not at all a work of art, but looked pretty cool etched so deeply.
ring1.jpg
 
Great looking rings Mitch and David. I see David's are soldered. I assume that Mitch, you machine from solid billet?
 
Decker:
The mandrel I use is a full tapered round to start the stretch (0 to 1").You could turn one on the lathe. Once the hole is big enough, you can switch to a ring mandrel.

If you wanted to make comfort fit liners, use low profile half round stock and make the band with the curve on the inside and the flat on the outside. You could file some 2mm thick flat stock to the low dome by hand easily.
Stacy

Mitch's rings are first class. I think it would be easiest to buy one.
 
btboone said:
Great looking rings Mitch and David. I see David's are soldered. I assume that Mitch, you machine from solid billet?
Click to expand...

Yes, all my rings are seamless, machined from round stock. There's a lot of waste involved with doing it this way, but I prefer the seamless look.

~Mitch
 
Here's a special finishing technique that I came up with that has a look similar to damascus steel. This was done in all titanium in a process different than TiMascus. I can't give full details because I'm working on a patent, but it can be done on steel like knife blades as well.

moktensionset.jpg
 
Like decker said...Here comes another project.
Thanks for the info.
By the way....Nice rings.

Larry
 
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