A short artisan project created by Grant Takara under the brand, Meijiro Design. (Grant is also known as Gtscientific LLC)
Other tungsten dice are out there, but none are machined and finished with this level of detail and quality. It takes time and effort to do so.Â
These dice are machined from billet tungsten copper alloy. They are very heavy and very dense, unlike the more vanilla titanium and zirconium alloys out there.Â
After CNC machining on my 5 axis mill they are hand sanded, blasted, acid burned, and stone washed for a battle worn finish.
One of my favorite quotes from Christopher Nolan's movie Tenet, is when the scientist describes the debris found as "detritus of a coming war". These dice capture what I view a soldier in such a war could be carrying to pass the time between battles.Â
What's so special about tungsten copper?
It's dense (sometimes used as weights when lead is unsuitable)
It's extreme corrosion resistance
It's expensive price
Pure tungsten is also absolutely nasty to machine. To provide the same properties that a human can distinguish (vs a super high temperature application) a tungsten alloy is used. Otherwise this project would be infeasible.
These are the same size as your standard Monopoly set of dice (5/8" or 16mm). But heavier. Much heavier.Â
Mass: 126g (or almost 4.5 oz!) A bit on how it's made. These start as dovetailed stock which is held in my 5 axis CNC machine. After machining they have a rose gold hue due to the copper content (30% for this batch). While the rose gold is nice, it reacts easily so the acid burn + stone wash helps to make the surface more inert.
Left to right: The starting billet. The dice after op1 machining. The dice after hand sanding, blasting, first round acid burning, and stone washing. The prototype in this photo will be blackened a bit more.
