Sam Guidry "Mokume Crazy #1"
 

I discovered Mokume Gane as a material through Ken Parker and I was instantly in love with the possibilities that it could bring to a guitar.

Mokume gane is a Japanese metalworking procedure which produces a mixed-metal laminate with distinctive layered patterns, as well as that laminate itself. Mokume gane translates closely to "wood grain metal" or "wood eye metal" and describes the way metal takes on the appearance of natural wood grain. Mokume gane fuses several layers of differently coloured precious metals together to form a sandwich of alloys called a "billet." The billet is then manipulated in such a way that a pattern resembling wood grain emerges over its surface.

I needed to learn how to create the mokume and fortunately I have a friend who is a jeweler and luthier who gave me some tips in how to forge the material and I was off and running.
I purchased some billets of laminated copper/silver and began the process of patterning that included lots of twisting and hammering, carving and blow torches! It made me feel somewhat like a dwarven smith out of a Tolkien novel. As i worked the material, the pattern started to reveal itself and the magic of mokume gane began to appear. I had to develop a whole new skill set to learn to work this material and it was a lot of fun to explore.

I forged my mokume into strips to be inlaid in the rosette, tail, back, and peghead decoration. I decided to inlay the material below the surface of the guitar both to draw attention to the decoration and to allow the texture of the mokume to show through. In the end i was extremely happy how the embellishments came out in the design of the instrument.

I knew from the start that i wanted special tuners that would match the rest of the instruments decoration so i contacted Rob from Rodgers tuners to see if we could collaborate on some custom mokume tuners. Luckily he was excited to give it a try so i forged some mokume for the plates to be used with the tuners. When Rob sent me some progress shots of the tuners being made I knew i had made the right choice. Upon receiving the tuners, i was blown away by what Rob had done. Rodgers tuners are truly special on their own but with the mokume they are mind blowing.

All of this effort was put into a beautiful set of Brazilian rosewood with a Swiss spruce top. The final guitar is a sight to behold. It made its debut at the Artisan Guitar show and will be traveling with me to the La Conner show as well. So please enjoy the pictures of the guitar and process and let me know what you think
To start, I would like to share a little of the process of making the tuners
here is a shot of the raw material (left), the rough patterned billet (center), and a sanded raw plate (right)https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...d9c0ca23_k.jpgUntitled by sam guidry, on Flickr
Here I am flattening the plate, watch those fingers!
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...953677aa_k.jpgUntitled by sam guidry, on Flickr
Here are the plates ready for final assembly
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...e7c04a51_k.jpgUntitled by sam guidry, on Flickr
and finally the only mokume Rodger's tuners in the world
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...82c0a263_k.jpgUntitled by sam guidry, on Flickr

That is super cool, those tuners are awesome.

Sam,

These are exquisite. I'm a big fan of Rodgers tuners and also of Damascus steel, which is visually very similar to Mokume Gane. It's a beautiful combination of the two. Congratulations on a truly unique idea!

I made the plates and he made the tuners. It was a pleasure working with Rob on this project and I feel he went above and beyond to realize these tuners!

Sam’s mokume was far more beautiful in person (kudos)...:up:

Gorgeous work Sam ... definitely going the extra mile.

Very cool! Thanks for sharing this with us.

The tuners are really unique and beautiful. Do you have any sense of how they will age? I'm thinking that the copper in the laminate would oxidize over time? That would be my only concern - that I might end up with something that is different (although, could be equally beautiful) than I anticipated.

Steve

It is likely to change over time and I think that’s part of the beauty. All of the mokume has been sealed with finish to help mitigate extensive corrosion though

I love that! Wow. Is jealousy one of the seven deadly sins? I hope not and I don't think I will look into it either.

I did get play and see Ken's guitars at Artisan and saw the mokume gane on his archtops (although archtop isn't quite right for his guitars...close but they are trending toward a new species). They were lovely of course.

Sam...

These are amazingly beautiful. I love seeing the creativity that people are able to dream up.....and your collaboration is simply awe inspiring. Thank you for sharing.

Joel

Outstanding work, Sam! I'm excited by many of the little details lutherie is adopting, but these tuners are really some special.

That is very lovely. Reminds me of pattern welded steel or what is also referred to as so called damascus steel.

Bob is right. Absolutely striking in person. Really happy I had the chance to see these at Artisan.

Thank you to all who commented and viewed! The buttons on the tuners are red coral recon stone. I chose to go with the red both for the striking visual appearance and to match the perfling scheme of the guitar. Here are some photos of the tuners mounted on the peghead.
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...00d17130_k.jpgmokume3 by sam guidry, on Flickrhttps://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...c6158f22_k.jpgmokume5 by sam guidry, on Flickrhttps://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...e625591f_k.jpgmokume2 by sam guidry, on Flickr