forge welding question

P

pike3e

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Sep 28, 2008
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when drawing out a bar of damascus, between folds, should it be forged at or near welding heat or at a lower normal forging heat. I am interested in learning what would lead to less delaminations during the drawing out process. Any other insights or tips? I forged my first billet a few weeks ago using coal and a venturi forge(marginal welding heat) and it worked ok but I had several difficulities. I have a blown vertical forge comming in the next week and want to focus on making a cleaner final product.


Thanks

John
 
I can't speak about all alloys but with 1084 and 15n20 crack the heat up. I can triple my forging speed and nearly eliminate delaminations by forging at 2300 rather than 2000. Also avoid thinking "i only need to adjust that by 1/4" its still hot-ish...", a 5 minute reheat will save you a lot of headache.

If you want you could give me a call and I can talk your ear off about making damascus, the do's and don'ts, common problems, and answer any questions you have. I'm typically free Sunday-Tuesday if your interested.
 
Make it hot and hit it hard! Forging most simple carbon steels in the 2200-2300 range will make your work easier and help avoid delaminations. As always though, tailor your forging heats to your steel. If working O-1/L6 for example, forging over 2350 or so can cause some pretty severe heartbreak when your O-1 goes red short and crumbles...

I try to work at a welding heat for any operations that result is significant deformation of the stock, so you want to work hot for all of your drawing, twisting, etc. Once you've forged to near finished size you can run some slightly lower heats to do your finish forging and get a nicer surface finish, lightly straighten things, etc. If you've done your forging well up to this point, your steel should be able to take it.

-d
 
Like said, work it hot, but don't forget to normalize. The grain will be huge in a finished billet, if not normalized...
 
Thanks for the info. Dan I may give you a call after I try this new billet with a hotter forge in the next week or so.
 
Hello:

I have been away a bit due to several reasons....I work everything laminated (except for a few of the really weird stuff I sometimes weld up) starting at a welding heat and stopping at around 2000F. Now this does make the stuff move faster and when you are working with an air hard mix like I sometimes do, this is very important to keep the temp up there so it doesn't start to harden under your hammer...which is a real PITA and can cause all sorts of problems.

Thermal cycle after forging (every time you are going to stop working on it) is very important as the grain can look like pea gravel if you aren't careful...

NVHammerHead
 
make sure your welds are clean to start with, that's the first thing, you are unlikely to get delaminations if your welds are good and you're working hot

-Page
 
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