forge welding

[dozuki]

I have made a couple of knives from RR spikes and I know they won't hold and edge but they just look cool to me. So my next step is to cut one down the middle and forge weld in some 516 or 0-1. I have never tried this before and was wondering if there is any special techniqe besides get it hot, flux it and hit it with a hamer. Repeating as required. thanks for the help.

 

[deker]

Take a look at my take on welding here at my website. I've done the best I can to explain how I do it and why I do it the way I do. It's not magic, but it is certainly a little more complex than "get it hot, flux it and hit it with a hammer".

Check out the steel preparation section as well. It's geared more towards pattern welding, but the information will hold true for what you're doing as well.

One issue you are likely to have is getting a void at the bottom of the cut in your spike. What you'll want to do in order to minimize this is to grind or forge your high carbon insert to a tapered shape before inserting it into the "V" shape of your cut. This will leave as little void as possible at the bottom of your cut. Even so you may end up with a void there. Practice and mess around with it a bit and you should be able to see what's going wrong and devise a way to fix it.

Let us know how it goes!

-d

 

[Lynn]

deker.
Thanks for the link to your web site. I have read and enjoyed your explanation of welding. It will change the way I have been working.
Appreciatively,
Lynn

 

[dozuki]

sounds good thanks for the link. i can't wait to try it this weekend.