Mokume' gane is Japanese for " wood grained metal". It is any layered laminated metal - basically non-ferrous damascus. The standard metals used for knife hardware are nickel silver (a copper/zinc alloy), copper, and brass. They are stacked in pieces around 2" square in a torque plate. The torque plate is nothing but a simple press made from two heavy 3" square steel plates that bolt together at the corners. Once the metal sheets have been cleaned and stacked in the plates, and the bolts are tightened as tight as the y will go, the assembly is placed in a HT bag to eliminate oxygen. The packet is placed in an oven and heated to just below the eutectic point of the metals to start fusing them. The actual point you want is found in charts and by experimentation.Once fully soaked for several hours at this point, the billet is taken out and placed on the anvil where the plates are given a light tap with the hammer. This applies pressure to the sheet junctions, and momentarily lowers the melting point. It allows the sheets to fuse together. The plates are then removed and the billet is worked down into the size and shape desired, manipulating the metal to pattern it as desired. There are some good books on Mokume', that give the several ways it can be made, and have good charts for calculating the oven temp.
Poor mans mokume is made from a stack of quarters, which have copper centers with nickel exteriors. They are stacked in a simple clamp, heated to just barely the fusion point, TAPPED , NOT POUNDED to set the weld, and then worked down into a sheet. Done right it makes a usable piece of mokume.
Stacy