damascus tang welding

M

mdoyle

Joined
Feb 10, 2006
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Hey guys! First I would like to introduce myself as this is my first post.
My name is Matt Doyle and I live in north eastern Ohio. I have been making knives with mixed results for about two months. Normally I just search the archives for answers to just about anything I need to know, but I can't find this one so here goes...
Can anyone tell me what welding process is used to weld low carbon tangs to damascus blades. I am a VERY experienced weldor with access to anything I need, I just don't know what that is. Since I am a new maker and my knives don't look as nice as some of yours I can't command the price that you guys get out of your knives. So any way I can ease the price of materials would greatly help. Also, what method is used to hide the transition between the two metals. I will try to add a pic of my latest knife, but sometimes metal and I get along much better than computers.
Regards,
Matt
http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e3/tmdoyle/dd4e5649.jpg
http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e3/tmdoyle/f364e150.jpg
 
are you talking about a hidden tang or full tang?if its a hidden tang you might try this
Picture.jpg

i would suggest tig welding if the blade is hardened(less heat distribution)
if you have to mig weld, try wrapping a cold wet rag around the blade to help keep it cool. if its not hardened it wont matter as long as you normalize and anneal after you weld. after its welded grind down the bead so its flat with the rest of the tang. drill all your holes (if needed) before hardening.aside from that you should be good to go
mike
p.s. your pics wont come up. try hosting them at photobucket.com. its free!
 
I guess you're talking about a full-tang knife? Since you mentioned hiding the transition.

I use my mig welder to weld longer tangs onto some damascus blades, I simply grind the tang and the stub addition down to points, line them up on a little fixture I made, and weld them together. I do this prior to the thermal cycles, so the joint is stress relieved. And I typically only do this with fancy mosaic blades, as I want to keep as much of the steel in the blade as I can. I still make sure to have at least 2" of the actual blade steel forged down for the tang.

If you are talking about a full-tang, I'd recommend you just forge the tang all the way down, including the taper, so that the entire tang is the damascus. Then use locator pins in the handle so that you can finish the knife, take it apart, and etch the whole blade, then re-assemble. That way you'll have the damascus pattern showing all the way around. :)
 
Sorry, i should have specified that i did indeed mean full-tang construction. I have seen many finished blanks for sale manufactured in this manner, and thought it would be a good way to stretch the cost of damascus if I could get two pieces out of a blank that was originally only long enough for one using damascus the entire length. My thoughts were going in the direction of hiding the transition with filework but wanted to hear from someone who had done it. Also was leaning toward TIG welding but unsure of what filler metal to use. My guess was 308L due to the different metals involved. Thanks for the tip on photobucket, I went back and changed the link so you should be able to open it now.
Matt
 
Can't help you on the welding question, but just wanted to say "darn nice knife!" If that's your work at 2 months I can't wait to see where you'll be in 2 years....

-d
 
i can see it! man thats a beautiful knife! :thumbup: awesome specimen!
also if you want to post an image without a link, under the picture copy the IMG and paste on your post. then it will post the pic
 
Thanks for the compliments guys, I really appreciate them! It's amazing what you can turn out in two months when you you learn by constantly #!*!*ing up everything you touch!!! Still hoping for help with hiding the transition and the appropriate filler metal to use, so if anyone has ideas please shoot 'em my way.
Thanks,
Matt Doyle
 
the easiest way to do this transition and not show any lines is to do a framed handle construction and weld the tang to the frame and grind off the welds,do this before heat treat if you want or you can heat treat the blade then set a guard then set the frame and weld it to the tang.if your not sure what I mean by a framed handle just go to my tutorial page on my websita and check out the Coke bottle handle tutorial.done without the guard you can still set bolsters to cover the joint line on the side of the knife.

Now on another note when jumping a mild steel tang to a hiddem tang knife the strongest joint is to silver braze the joint.I sharpen the end of the tang then make a "V" cut in the piece to be jumped on,then flux and braze this joint.the tang can then be bent or shaped as needed to attach the handle without any problems from the brazed joint.Much easier than trying to weld and takes less time and money also.

Bruce
 
Thanks for all the advice guys. You guys are all okay in my book, except for you Higgins, you are just plain *%#!ed up! :D
 
I would only do the welding thing on a hidden tang knife. On a full, exposed tang, the seam WILL be visible and looks pretty cheesy, IMHO.
 
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