Japanese Mixed Metal Cigarette Case Technique Conundrum.

[ChrisP]

I have been trying to understand how these cases were made and would welcome any input from interested metal workers.

 

The geometric case would have been made from 2 sheets each of silver, shakudo, shibuichi and copper. These need to be cut to shape,assembled, held in place and soldered together. The cleaning of the finished sheet, polishing, patinating and construction of the case are a given.

Given the complex shapes the work is incredible.

 

Jim Kelso has given me some guidence on how he would do this using a brass master pattern, jewellers saw and files. The piece would be assembled, pinned in place and soldered by cappiliary action in a furnace laying solder on the joints. Understandable as a one off.

 

These cases were produced commercialy and not as one offs free of time and cost considerations. Also the silver and shakudo squares case to my mind defies all logic in the placement and soldering of the pieces that go to make up the case.

 

I am not a metal worker but a collector and my thoughts are that the geometric case sheets may have been cut with a forme and platten similar to cardboard packaging production. The pieces would be mixed to give 2 sheets of the completed design.

Could they then have been held between 2 sheets of steel in a furnace and solder forced in or by capilliary action. From a commercial point of view this would reduce the time spent cutting the the highly accurate pieces and make holding them in place easier.

 

The silver and shakudo case pieces could easily be guillotined for accuracy as they are square. How you could assemble and solder so many pieces with such accuracy is beyond me.

 

Please let me have your thoughts.

[Dan]

possibly take the cut pieces and epoxy them together.

[Janel]

Hi Chris,

 

I do not have experience with metal fabrication, so will only mention my thoughts for possible assembly of parts. Having had experience with assembling and the sewing of quilt pieces, I see in the designs shown above strips or units of shapes that could have been made as ribbons or clusters. Their edges could then have been smoothed and made straight, ready for joining into a larger element placement, ultimately making a large sheet of material to be cut into the required case size and shape. It is just a way of thinking on my part having had experience with cloth/quilt designing, not from metals experience.

 

Janel

[yloh]

Wow, I thought they are printed on.

Yloh

[DanM]

"These cases were produced commercialy and not as one offs free of time and cost considerations. Also the silver and shakudo squares case to my mind defies all logic in the placement and soldering of the pieces that go to make up the case."

 

This would have been a "stack" of square bars ,most likely sweat soldered/fused in a box.The square or rectangular "soldered" piece would the be put into an EDM wire setup and slices cut like a loaf of bread.They would then be "die" stamped and assembled.

 

The top photo with geometric shapes probably was made with the same technique.

[ChrisP]

Hi Dan,

Thanks for that.

For the squares that sounds entirely plausable and Hakone parquetry wood veneer was produced like this in the Meiji era (I have many examples). This would answer the iissues of cutting, placement and soldering.

The geometric shape case is another beast. I cannot imagine shaping and fitting the rods of alloy with such complex shapes and acute angles to make the block with virtualy no gaps.

Keep it coming, I think we are progressing.

Regards Chris.

[DanM]

Hi Dan,

Thanks for that. I did in fact suggest that to Jim but he did not respond.

For the squares that sounds entirely plausable and Hakone parquetry wood veneer was produced like this in the Meiji era (I have many examples). This would answer the iissues of cutting, placement and soldering.

The geometric shape case is another beast. I cannot imagine shaping and fitting the rods of alloy with such complex shapes and acute angles to make the block with virtualy no gaps.

Keep it coming, I think we are progressing.

Regards Chris.

 

Shaping is easy with a milling machine.The solder lines on the geometric pattern are not parallel in some cases,this shows there was some slippage and movement while soldering.

[ChrisP]

Hi Dan,

That sounds great.I have no experiece of milling so just googled it.

Revolution marks are mentioned. Could these be polished out of the bar surfaces without apprecably widenig the gap?

Would you surmise the sheets which are thin would be sawn like veneer or is there an industrial "microtome" that would shave the sheets off?

 

Although the use of these alloys runs on from the meiji era the cases were made between the world wars when Japan was rapidly industrialising and so would certainly have these machines and skills in abundance.

This is answering so many of the issues I am very excited.

Many thanks

Chris.

[ChrisP]

Hi Dan,

I am told the EDM was not available until the 1960s however I think you have given me the answers. I am overseas at the moment but when I get to my collection next I will look at the variable gap on other examples and see if they are similar.

Thanks for your input.

[Fred E. Zweig]

These are created by butt soldering the pieces together with high temp solder (brazing). You will note a solder seam on some examples. I own a few of these in my collection. Some are geometric and others are landscape scenes. Metalsmiths call this technique "marriage of metals". Fred

[niky]

Sheets of metal .50mm, composed of patterns, could be made any size, then cut for various objects (cigarette cases, powder cases); definitely soldered in an oven.

 

Frames and locks soldered to the shaped sheets.

 

Niky http://nikysenater.com/