Welding rod damascus?

[J.Marsillo]

Ok first let me sheepishly raise my hand for being guilty of putting the cart before the horse I wanted to try to get a small bundle of welding rods of different types together.stainless,chrome manganese,hardfacing rod,regular mild steel rods in different tensile strenghts and some nickel rod.has any one ever tried this?
I never tried forge welding stainless before so i'm not sure what to expect.
Oh yeah this is regardless of carbon content:foot: mabe itll make a neet looking gaurd or something.

 

[mete]

Much of the alloying elements are in the coating of the rod which you would have to break of first.If you get rods that have alloy in them instead of the coating .You might have some other problems with certain rods but it might be worth a try. Have at it.

 

[J.Marsillo]

Thanks neighbor! I'm gonna give it hell this weekend I'd do it now but the plow truck'll take out my extension cord

 

[Reg ELLERY]

I have worked some cable before.

If you don't already know twist the rods together when they are red hot and get a solid end and work back.

If you have not done it before get a stack of one grade and get the skill up then try for the mixed bag.

I think you will find rods stack in multiples something like 3 , 7, 19, 32. Something like that anyway. Those numbers (check when you look at them)

will twist it neat cables without lumps and bumps everywhere.

Good luck.

 

[mete]

I am a neighbor , only 40 miles west of you ! You might also put the rods in a can of square tubing ,that makes it a bit easier .

 

[J.Marsillo]

Well maybe its piss poor tecnique but nothing good came from that experiment I made a 1" bundle alternating where i put the stainless rods then tied it all in with tie wire.I tried doing it like cable , clean, flux, beat, repeat.It was going good untill i went for a twist and all the mild steel rods dripped out like water maybe i got it too hot trying to compensate for the stainless.maybe i'll try the canister method next time.