- Joined
- Feb 24, 2022
- Messages
- 115
I'm a beginning bladesmith. I've taken classes on basic blacksmithing in the past and now I'm almost done with an intro class on blades. Like a lot of instructors, ours started with railroad spikes and I had fun playing with things like twisting handles and so on. Of course the problem is that the spikes aren't high carbon steel and don't hold an edge.
I saw some people do this online so I thought I'd give it a try. I drew out a spike and then split it half of its length, creating an open groove. I then took a piece of 1095 and fit it into the grove. I beveled the inside edge a bit to create a tight fit. I then cleaned up the inside edges of the split spike and went for the forge weld. The first knife I worked on failed to forge weld completely and we ended up Mig welding it. The second one (shown in the picture) forge welded really well, but as you can see I got cratering all around the edge of the spike steel. The other side is even worse, so much so that it can't be ground out.
A little bit about the process I used. This was done at the Indianapolis Art Center, which has single burner forges made from propane tanks. I blocked one end of the forge with fire brick, heated until the 1095 was yellow, fluxed with Borax, reheated until yellow and then started setting the weld at the point nearest the handle. Usually just three or four taps with the hammer, then back in the forge, up to temperature, then back out for more setting. I repeated that until I could not see a seam.
I was really excited to see that the weld was successful along the spine. Other than a tiny hairline at that point where the spike split there is no seam at all. However on the face of the blade on both sides I get this nasty cratering of the good steel. That area of the bar stock was not worked at all other than the setting the weld.
Is this from too much heat? Hitting the metal too hard? A combination of the two? I know it's tricky since I was welding different metals, but it's frustrating that I had my first good weld but created an unusable knife!
Thanks in advance for your thoughts.
I saw some people do this online so I thought I'd give it a try. I drew out a spike and then split it half of its length, creating an open groove. I then took a piece of 1095 and fit it into the grove. I beveled the inside edge a bit to create a tight fit. I then cleaned up the inside edges of the split spike and went for the forge weld. The first knife I worked on failed to forge weld completely and we ended up Mig welding it. The second one (shown in the picture) forge welded really well, but as you can see I got cratering all around the edge of the spike steel. The other side is even worse, so much so that it can't be ground out.
A little bit about the process I used. This was done at the Indianapolis Art Center, which has single burner forges made from propane tanks. I blocked one end of the forge with fire brick, heated until the 1095 was yellow, fluxed with Borax, reheated until yellow and then started setting the weld at the point nearest the handle. Usually just three or four taps with the hammer, then back in the forge, up to temperature, then back out for more setting. I repeated that until I could not see a seam.
I was really excited to see that the weld was successful along the spine. Other than a tiny hairline at that point where the spike split there is no seam at all. However on the face of the blade on both sides I get this nasty cratering of the good steel. That area of the bar stock was not worked at all other than the setting the weld.
Is this from too much heat? Hitting the metal too hard? A combination of the two? I know it's tricky since I was welding different metals, but it's frustrating that I had my first good weld but created an unusable knife!
Thanks in advance for your thoughts.
