Any tips on forge welding high carbon and mild steel together?

J

JMJones

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Jul 14, 2010
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I am thinking forge welding a chunk of mild steel to one of my damascus billets in order to act as the tang portion on some full tang knives. I have never welded mild steel, only high carbon. Any tips, tricks or things to watch for?


Thanks
 
I believe Bill is thinking electrical welding.
Which would certainly be easier and quicker!
But, next time you have your forge up and running, just flux and weld as you normally would - no special secrets.
 
You will have to work hotter than welding carbon steel to carbon steel. The two metals work differently and will want to tear each other apart

Page
 
JMJones said:
Is that for forge or electric welding?
Click to expand...

Sorry for some reason my brain didn't register the forge part of your first post.
Page is correct in that the mild steel has to be hotter to weld than the carbon steel. What I do is to get my weld joint ready to weld then first put the mild steel into the forge and let it get HOT, I like for it to be yellow or even going into white. now put in the carbon steel let it get hot and flux both pieces and touch together in the position that you wish them to be. they should stick even though the carbon steel is cooler than the mild steel. remove and hammer to complete the weld. Use a scarf joint or better yet split the mild steel and taper the carbon steel so that the two pieces fit together then weld using the same procedure.

with that said since you are forging you can forge a full tapered tang or a stick tang and not use enough steel to make this worth while. and if you are making a full tang knife do you really want the mild steel to show between the scales of your knife?
 
Thanks for the info. I had a 1x2x3 inch billet with the pattern on the 1x2 inch face. I figured I could forge weld on two 1x1x3 pieces to the side and double my amount of steel. It appears to have worked so far but I have not forged one of the slices into a knife yet. I will post a pic if I get a chance. As for the mild steel showing on the side, I will see how I like it or not.

Thanks

John
 
I wasn't thinkin' right.
Instead of mild why don't you just weld another piece of high carbon to it?
Seems like that would solve more than one problem.
 
An old timey blacksmith answers. Mild steel and high carbon steel are compatible in a forge weld. Did you ever wonder why an axe bit is called a bit? Because a bit of high carbon steel cutting edge is forge welded into the low carbon wrought iron or mild steel of the axe body. It is usually a cleft (bird's mouth) weld. Many an old carpenter's chisel had a little slap of high carbon welded to low carbon on the non beveled side, so you would always be sharpening into the high carbon. The weld takes place at a "sweating heat" with no bright sparks being emitted from the metals. The metal is at a near white (a yellow/white) incandescence. The metal looks sweaty/runny on the surface where the borax (flux) and scale have melted together. Use RELATIVELY light blows to start the weld; then apply harder blows once the two metals cohere.

The high carbon steel crumbles and/or cracks at a sparking heat; that's why we keep it at the lower temperature sweating heat. That kind of weld is considered difficult nowadays, but in the old days, it wasn't hard...because it WAS THE ONLY WAY TO WELD.

http://www.turleyforge.com
 
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