welding a tang

C

cunningham

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Dec 22, 2007
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I have a 1.5x3 in.drop of damascus and would like to weld a tang onto it.Would like to use 4130 scrap,but have 1095,just hate to waste it.Damascus is 1095.I have a tig welder and high tensil rods to work with.Any problems.do's,don'ts,don't do it at all's? Thanks, Chad.
 
be sure to thermal cycle the weld zone a few times to avoid brittleness at the edge of the weld. there is no reason you can't use mild steel for the tang.
 
Go with the 1095 if that is whats in the damascus. Makes for a much easier weld. Weld like materials if possible.
If you have access to a TIG or MIG outfit, the job will go a lot easier. You can burn the tang up in a hurry using a stick machine.

Make a keyed splice. Put the male end on the blade side and the female on the tang extension. Cut the male end first. Scribe that on the extension and file to fit.
I cut the female side of the splice with a right angle grinder, then finish out with files.
Take the time to produce a tight joint. If you do, you can clamp the blade in a vise, attach the tang, it should fit snug, put a tack bead at the top, turn the blade over and tack the joint at the bottom. You can now lay the piece on a ground and tig one side then the other. You can make a joint you can't see, using this technique.
good luck, Fred
 
The safest way is to preheat .You could go to 400 F I think without problems. Post heat - double temper at 400 F.
 
You should at least put a chamfered edge on the splice so you can grind off the weld flat and still have a strong joint.
Richard
 
if you are silver bazing then the keyed joint is the correct way. If you are electric arc welding using tig mig or stick then it is redundent and totally unneccessary just chamfer both sides of both pieces clamp them down on a flat surface and weld them together on one side. grind the weld bead flush turn over clamp down and weld the other side. Using a high carbon steel for the tang is just going to complicate things and give a brittle zone on both sides of the weld. the tang should be welded on before heat treating and thermal cycled to reduce the size of the grain that will be huge in the weld area. preheat and post heat is not a bad idea but it is not enough to refine grain where the steel is MELTED together it needs to be thermal cycled for a strong weld. this will be more important on a full tang knife than a stick tang. but don't take my word for it check a welding book out of the library and see what it says.
 
Sorry Burke,but i'm going to take your word on it,Im along ways from a library.Besides,everything you said makes sense. Chad
 
I have used the keyed technique, using a tig welder somewhere around 200 times. The book may tell me that it is unnecessary, but I do many things, when building knives, that are outside the norm.
When I make a joint in steel that is less than an eighth of an inch in cross section, I'll take the extra time to add the keyed joint; for my piece of mind, if nothing else.
Besides, customers like to think you go the extra mile, when making their knifes. :D

Fred
 
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