MIG/FC Welding Blades? (Blanks, pre-HT)

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boy&hisdogs

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Dec 9, 2015
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Pardon me if this is a silly question, but I want to make a cleaver (legit kitchen tool, not a tactical/show piece). Following the idea of the traditional method of inserting a carbon steel bit into a body of mild steel, and following my budget by not spending $$$ on 4"+ wide stock, could (more like "should") I weld two 2" wide stocks (One carbon/tool, the other mild) together down the long sides to create a single 4" wide piece? I am not able to forge, but I do have a mig machine. Would this create any problems during HT? I plan on outsourcing the HT, is there anything special I would need to make the HT'er aware of? I assume the joint would be noticeable after etching too right? Could I draw a hamon-like-thing with my welder and have it come out halfway decent?
 
Its not something I would personally do but that's not to say it COULDNT be done. Yes the two steels will show different colors when etched, and the fill from the mig wire will show as a third color. A couple possible issues that come to mind would be warp from the heat of welding, as well as probable warp from heat treating. I have personally tried san-mai with 1095 and steel mild before, and have seen others try as well. Due to the way the different steels react during quenching, san mai billets like that can literally tear apart in the quench, so my half educated assumption is that while tearing the mig weld apart is unlikely, warp from quench will probably be an issue.
 
Stress from welding can be relieved before hardening. After welding, an annealing cycle will get everything into the same state, so that later when austentized and quenched there is less stress on the joint alone. This is standard procedure for weldments we build at work that have multiple material types like 1095 wear plates welded to A36 or GR50 structures.
 
No, it won't work in any practical way.

Also, the 4" wide material won't cost you much more than the 2" wide pieces. Contact Aldo, or look online and eBay for some basic steel that will do the job. 1084, 1075, 1080, 5160, 9260, etc. will all make good cleavers.

I just checked, a 48" bar of .125X4" 1084 is $42. That will make four cleavers.
 
Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith said:
No, it won't work in any practical way.

Also, the 4" wide material won't cost you much more than the 2" wide pieces. Contact Aldo, or look online and eBay for some basic steel that will do the job. 1084, 1075, 1080, 5160, 9260, etc. will all make good cleavers.

I just checked, a 48" bar of .125X4" 1084 is $42. That will make four cleavers.
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You know, I think I was looking at the wrong thing when I was trying to get an idea of price. 1/8ish x 4" wide 1084 seems to be roughly $10 a foot most places I look, that's not bad at all.

Thanks for the reality check :thumbup:
 
valknut said:
Wouldn't there be Slag and inclusion if you did FC?
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I'm not sure actually, the majority of my experience has been with stick and mig. I've only ever used FC a handful of times and those were just expedient fixes that I didn't care too much about.
 
boy&hisdogs said:
I'm not sure actually, the majority of my experience has been with stick and mig. I've only ever used FC a handful of times and those were just expedient fixes that I didn't care too much about.
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Any time I've used FC it's been nasty and dirty not really something I'd want in my knives. I'd do what Stacy said and just get the bigger piece.
 
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