welding tangs

J. Neilson

J. Neilson

Joined
Feb 6, 2001
Messages
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Does anyone have any tips on welding theaded rod onto blade steel? I've been using my good steel (440, D2, etc.) for the entire knife so far, but would like to save some of the good stuff for the blade itself. Since I don't have the cash to lay out for arc, mig, or tig welders I would like to use my oxy-actalene set-up. Plus the fact that I believe simpler is usually better. I know oxy welds aren't pretty, but since I do mostly hidden tangs that is not a problem. Any tips, as always, would be a great help and time saver.

Thanx,
J.
 
I've only had to do that a couple of times,I went to the local muffler shop,they have mig or tig,carbon or stainless wire,took but a minute and a couple bucks.A lot cleaner than my oxy/acy,plus not a lot of heat migration.
 
The use of acetylene welding is acceptable and the best way I have found is to make a V or U in the tang to weld the rod to that will fit the joint. The more area involved the higher the chances of success. You can also use a hard silver solder. For the solder joint, a good tight fit with the more surface area involved is better. A coat hanger is acceptable for welding with a good preheat and slow cooling period. This will reduce the stress in the steel. Treat the steel as if you had just forged it and do the normalizing and annealing. The mild or low carbon steel does not need it but the area involved in the welding does because it is in a state of stress.

If you have a thin strip of the material you are making the knife out of, you can use that for the welding rod.

For the high chromium content stainless type steels, Acetylene welding has not been very successful. Use TIG or Stick for these materials. You can always grind off the excess.

Good Luck.
 
I alway use silver braze, with a good tight V joint, I thoight that I might just a lousy welder, because it came out best in all my stress tests. but there was an article in one of the recent Blade mag. on it and he recomended silver braze also.
 
I've had really good luck also with silver brazing using Oxy/Acet, its strong. Love the flux made by Harris, "Stay-Silv white brazing flux". The silver braze seems to be at a higher heat than yellow brazing, protect the blade.

A scarfed joint cut on an angle increases the surface area and improves the shear stregnth, so would anything other than a 90 degree butt joint.

There was a post on doing this awhile back, maybe by RW Clark?
 
One other thing that I do is leave some natural (origional steel) tang. Just leave an inch or so to have the strongest part of the tang where the greatest stress is.
 
Thanks for the responses. I was planning on putting a lateral groove about half way down the tang (average 2-3") to fit a piece of threaded rod. Then oxy weld, I'm pretty good at that,[metal to metal-no filler rod-unless I had to<maybe a coat hanger or spare material]. I thought that if it would be a failed weld it would break duing grinding(soon enough to fix)if it survived that, it would live through just about anything. Maybe I'm wrong though. I don't think the oxy heat would burn the steel I use too much or too quickly, but like I said this is a new thing for me. Right or wrong, I'm sure I'll try it sooner or later, but I really appreciate the help and suggestions you folks send my way. Hey, that's part of what the "forum" is all about. Thanks again for any and all info.

J.
 
Thanks for the responses. I was planning on putting a lateral groove about half way down the tang (average 2-3") to fit a piece of threaded rod. Then oxy weld, I'm pretty good at that,metal to metal-no filler rod-unless I had to<maybe a coat hanger or spare material. I thought that if it would be a failed weld it would break duing grinding(soon enough to fix)if it survived that, it would live through just about anything. Maybe I'm wrong though. I don't think the oxy heat would burn the steel I use too much or too quickly, but like I said this is a new thing for me. Right or wrong, I'm sure I'll try it sooner or later, but I really appreciate the help and suggestions you folks send my way. Hey, that's part of what the "forum" is all about. Thanks again for any and all info.

J.
 
Sorry folks, I guess my computer is messing with me again. Anyway, I was going to go metal to metal and hope the heat build up would be slow enough to not damage the steel. Maybe use a coat hanger, standard oxy trick, or use scrap from the blank. I'm sure I'll try this out one way or another. Regardless, I appreciate all the help you folk send back. Hey, that's part of what the "foum" is all about.

J.
 
The Silver Braze will give you a stronger joint with less heat build up in the Blade.And when done with a v-groove the bolt will bend before the joint will and you don't need it any stronger than that inside the handle.I always leave at least a inch of material for a tang that I am going to jump another piece onto and lengthen a tang and I haven't hade any problems with this type of joint at all.I used to weld the tangs on with really great results but have found this just as strong and easier to do,as my welding talents with a arc welder are not that great.
Bruce
 
IF YOU WANT TO WELD STAINLESS BUY THE CORRECT ROD. it will save you a bunch of trouble Coat hanger + stainless would not be an acceptable weld. I also do not weld allthread in the threads To many stress risers. Try a scrap piece and bend it, you'll see what I mean.
 
J, I bought a small wire feed welder from Walmart that welds stainless like a pro. It was just $99 last year.
 
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