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Electroforming a layer of silver solder onto a copper-silver laminate

Greetings, My name is Guido Reichstadter, I am an jewelry artist and designer working in Miami, Florida.

I am developing process techniques for creating mokume gane jewelry. This is a 17th century Japanese metalworking technique for creating diffusion bonded laminates of non-ferrous metals. One of the things one does with these laminates is form them into bars, carve them, and twist them to form patterned metal. Heavy forming or twisting operations create a deal of stress in the laminate, and it is often useful to cover the exposed layers of the laminate with a layer of solder to prevent delamination.

My current research employs a copper-sterling silver laminate to be soldered with silver solder. To avoid complications ensuing from maintaing a protective flux coating over the laminate while meticulously applying solder at a temperature of around 1300 F, I believe it would be useful to electrodeposit a heavy layer of silver solder over the surface of the laminate, which is about 2X1X5 cm, and then carefully raise the temperature of the block of metal untill the solder flows.

Is it feasible to safely perform this task with rudimentary equipment such as a battery charger [on eBay or Amazon] , common chemicals and no professional experience? If so, I would greatly appreciate a pointer towards a basic process. If not, are there commercial services that can perform this operation?

Thanks in advance,

Guido John Reichstadter

2006

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Try next webpage: www.faceters.com/askjeff/mokume.shtml
Good luck and hope it helps!

Goran Budija

2006