forge-welding wrought iron & high carbon steel

D

dustfurn

Joined
Oct 2, 2007
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I recently got my hands on some wrought iron, and i'm planning on attempting to construct a simple medieval knife with accurate 'steel bit' construction (a body of wrought iron with a high carbon edge ).

Is welding WI and high carbon steel together much different than welding mild + high carbon? Anything i should keep in mind when welding WI?

Thanks,
Dustin
 
WI is for the most part, as far as welding ,pure iron and it needs higher temperatures.
 
2000F is too cold for WI. Somewhere around 2300F is more in the range, if ity is true WI.
Stacy
 
I agree with Stacy....the working range for Wrought Iron is what is generally considered welding temp for high carbon/alloy steels. If you work wrought iron at low temps, it will generally break up and/or crumble. Welding it with high carbon/alloy steel requires heats that would generally be considered too hot for forge welding say 1080/15N20. Another issue you will find with using wrought iron in a blade is that you will get many more failures during hardening. (the blade will sometimes tear itself apart because one steel will contract more than the other).....if you get through the hardening successfully, don't be surprised to if you get moderate ot severe warping.
 
Picking up where Ed left off -
WI and HC steel welds are best edge quenched to avoid shearing.
Stacy
 
Here is my wrought iron and steel knife project

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=549164

Wrought likes to work in the bright yellow-white range, if you forge at normal steel forgingtemps it will crumble. I have found 1060-1084 works well with wrought, 1095 wants to tear it apart, there is just too much dynamics going on during hardening, I have made a batch of 1095/wrought blades successfuly because I had some 1095 offcuts to use up, but generally I like a lower carbon just to make sure it stays together.

-Page
 
sunshadow said:
Here is my wrought iron and steel knife project

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=549164

Wrought likes to work in the bright yellow-white range, if you forge at normal steel forgingtemps it will crumble. I have found 1060-1084 works well with wrought, 1095 wants to tear it apart, there is just too much dynamics going on during hardening, I have made a batch of 1095/wrought blades successfuly because I had some 1095 offcuts to use up, but generally I like a lower carbon just to make sure it stays together.

-Page
Click to expand...

Wow thanks, this is perfect.

A few questions:

Did you butt-weld the WI and steel edge together? or is it more of a scarf or san-mai style weld?

How far along did you forge the WI body and steel edge? Did you just weld a big billet together then forge the blade to shape, or did you forge the body and edge almost to final shape, then weld together?

I tried forging some of my wrought last night, and it started to delaminate (obviously not forging at high enough temp...though i was forging at the temps i have used to weld mild steel to high carbon...?). If you get some delamination, is it easy enough to weld that back together, or is the piece ruined?

Thanks for any more info on this...it's fascinating.

Dustin
 
ive welded a bit of wrought from time to time, id sa just reweld the shunt, gotta work it at least bright orange to yellow. i think alot depends on how clean,

maybe just coincidence, but seems lower temp welding can be done if the stock is cleaner.

try some nickle200 and wrought, makes beautiful san mai, and furniture, also looks great hot blued.
 
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