{"id":1266,"date":"2012-02-03T17:02:33","date_gmt":"2012-02-03T17:02:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/?p=1266"},"modified":"2012-02-06T05:39:26","modified_gmt":"2012-02-06T05:39:26","slug":"making-shibuichi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/?p=1266","title":{"rendered":"Making Shibuichi part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

Since I’ve spent the last week working on my web site format change, my wife is making me get serious about starting a new knife, so I have to make some shibuichi ingots for the knife handle scales. Shibuichi is an ancient Japanese precious bronze art alloy, typically made of 75% copper and 25% silver. It comes out as kind of a hard pinky bronze, which will patinate to a dark grayish color. Although it is a somewhat expensive alloy, it engraves and carves really nicely. I probably used an ounce of silver in the ingots I made today (about $35 worth).<\/p>\n

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\nHere I’m weighing out the copper scraps for a single ingot on my little electronic scale. Once I have the amount of copper I want, I’ll figure out how much silver I need to add (in the white lid at the bottom of the photo).<\/p>\n

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\nAbove is the equipment I’m using to create the shibuichi alloy, melt it and cast it into a small, thin ingot. From the left is my oxy\/acetylene torch, here just burning acetylene (no oxygen) – very smoky, and used like this to put a layer of soot on my ingot mold, the little black assembly at the top of the image. The soot will keep the shibuichi from soldering itself to the mold. Also in the picture is a small melting crucible, a container of borax flux for cleaning the scuzz off the melted metal, and the flint striker to light the torch.<\/p>\n

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\nHere you can see the crucible and assembled ingot mold. In this melt I’m going to use up a little extra bit of shibuichi and some scrap. Since shibuichi is so expensive, I collect all my scrap for re-use. This ingot I’ll probably use for a couple of small pendants. I cast my own shibuichi because it’s the only way I can get the thicknesses I need for knife scales, and commercially available thin sheet shibuichi costs about $30 per square inch. This much commercial shibuichi in 16 guage thickness would probably cost about $100.<\/p>\n

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\nAbove, I’ve cast the ingot and opened the ingot mold. The shibuichi is the copper colored rectangle in the sooty mold at the top.<\/p>\n

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\nAnd here are the three ingots I cast today, two 25% silver shibuichi ingots, and one about 20% from the scraps I had on hand, since some of the scraps were 15% shibuichi and I estimated…<\/p>\n

I’ll eventually put the ingots I cast today through a rolling mill to lengthen them and make them the proper thickness for my knife scales.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Since I’ve spent the last week working on my web site format change, my wife is making me get serious about starting a new knife, so I have to make some shibuichi ingots for the knife handle scales. Shibuichi is … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[5],"tags":[19,3,7,26],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6qLAy-kq","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1277,"url":"http:\/\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/?p=1277","url_meta":{"origin":1266,"position":0},"title":"Making Shibuichi part 2","date":"February 4, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"I spent today rolling out my three shibuichi ingots into useable sheet. Here's a picture of my Durston rolling mill. Above, I'm pickling the cast ingots in Sparex pickle. \"Pickling\" dissolves the dark oxides formed when the molten metal hits oxygen in the atmosphere. I use a small crockpot to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Engraved Knife"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/Shibuichi_Ingots_15.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2455,"url":"http:\/\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/?p=2455","url_meta":{"origin":1266,"position":1},"title":"Clockwork Trilobite – Part 2","date":"November 24, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Today was just a lot of sawing.\u00a0 A lot\u2026I had forgotten how gummy and resisting sterling silver could be, especially in thicker pieces.\u00a0 Now I remember why I much prefer sawing, engraving and carving in steel\u2026 Above are the two trilobite pieces sawn from my two silver plates.\u00a0 On the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Carving"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/Toadsticker_Shiv_Box.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1057,"url":"http:\/\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/?p=1057","url_meta":{"origin":1266,"position":2},"title":"Cherry Blossom and Dragonfly Tsuba Pendant part 1","date":"January 26, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Here's my next project attempt! It's a tsuba (Japanese sword guard) pendant with cherry branches, cherry blossoms and a dragonfly. The first image is a Photoshopped version of two antique tsuba, and the second image is my pattern I drew from that. I cast a small shibuichi ingot (precious Japanese\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Carving"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/Cherry_Dragonfly_Tsuba_3.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2539,"url":"http:\/\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/?p=2539","url_meta":{"origin":1266,"position":3},"title":"Dried Sardine Scalpel and Reliquary – Part 1","date":"February 2, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Well, here's another of my crazy reliquaries, this one a tiny dried sardine scalpel, in (and on) a sardine can. \u00a0This is loosely based on Japanese netsuke and menuki that I've seen, carved as tiny dried fish. \u00a0My version is of 1075 carbon steel, shibuichi, 416 stainless steel, bocote wood,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Carving"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/Dried_Anchovy_Scalpel_1.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1472,"url":"http:\/\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/?p=1472","url_meta":{"origin":1266,"position":4},"title":"Ants Miseretto part 9 – Risk Reduction","date":"February 29, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Now that my \"canvas\" is completed, it's time to turn my efforts to the design phase of the project. \u00a0I've spent an awful lot of time making the knife, and I'm concerned about inlaying the gold ants in the shibuichi. \u00a0I've inlaid one in nickel before, but not shibuichi, so,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Carving"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/Shibuichi_Pendant_16.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1130,"url":"http:\/\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/?p=1130","url_meta":{"origin":1266,"position":5},"title":"Cherry Blossom and Dragonfly Tsuba Pendant part 2","date":"January 27, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Here's the pendant with most of the areas sawed out with a jeweler's saw and tiny, tiny blade. After a lot of filing to begin smoothing the saw cuts (thanks to my lousy sawing skills), I began cutting away the center section. In this image I've engraved a lot of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Carving"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/Cherry_Dragonfly_Tsuba_6.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1266"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1266"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1266\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1290,"href":"http:\/\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1266\/revisions\/1290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}