forge welded to repair broken blade

[willy m]

i started making knives in 2007 one of the first useable blades i made(the steel i used was from an old crosscut saw) was a small paring knife. i gave it to my mother at christmas and she has been using it daily i gave it to her and it has preformed remarkablly well. however this year while using it to process vegtables for canning and it broke. the break is in the midle of the blade. she is pretty upset cause it is one of the first blades i made. i offered to make her a new one from new steel and ive gotten much better since then. but she is still upset about it. since its only paring size i have no room to Re-Process the steel itself. what i want to know is about the possibility of scarf the edges and try to forge weld it. because it is small and filed to be a blade shape i dont know if it can be done? what are your thoughts? thanks willy



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[javand]

I'm making assumptions on the size here without seeing it, but honestly, I don't think you're going to have much(any) serviceable steel left over after attempting to forge weld this thing back together. Couple that with the fact that doing a butt-together type forge weld of a thin cross-section is extremely difficult, I think you're going to end up destroying it.

You could try to overlap the two pieces, weld, and bang them back out, but decarb and scale aren't going to leave much left.

My suggestion is make her a new one, and put the broken blade in a case or frame on the wall for her as a trophy.

Knives break, especially early ones, that's part of the process of refinement. It lasted this long, give it the place of honor it deserves for all the hard work it did for your mom, don't send it to forge hell to be beaten into slag.

 

[Sam Salvati]

Clean both ends, then put a slit in them about 1/4" long right inthe middle running down the length, fold the two ears apart so both pieces fit together, then prep for forge welding, you'll lose about 1/2" of material but it should hold provided you weld it right.

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

Sam's method will work to get the blade in one piece, but there will be a weld seam down the blade center and you will have a super thin paring knife once done....if there is any steel left.
I would think the decarb layer will end up giving you a shrimp deveiner by the time it is all ground away and a new edge is exposed.

Tig weld the blade together, grind it clean, put it in a frame under glass, and hang it on Mom's kitchen wall. Make her a new one in CPM S35VN. Make it as close to the same size and handle material as you can. Give that to her with the one in the frame.