Welding wrought to steel

Greenberg Woods

Greenberg Woods

Joined
Dec 27, 2013
Messages
2,694
Hey guys, I recently ordered some wrought from Aldo for san mai, and i have done my research. It seems wrought iron forge welds very easily and takes a good weld, but my question was how well it would would to steels, such as the O1 i use for most of my knives.

Should I do anything differently?

Is this a good place for the borax soak to really coat everything in flux?

Should I keep the forging temperatures lower to avoid burning the wrought iron?

should my hammer blows be softer so as to avoid to much deformation?

Thanks for any and all help guys. Will be putting up pics as I work.
 
The more experienced forgers will surely chime in, but my first instinct tells me that this will be extremely difficult at best, as I've only had success forge welding wrought when it's screaming white (it doesn't really burn the same way steel does due to its minimal carbon content), while O1 is red short and will turn to cottage cheese if it gets anywhere near that hot.
 
I have done it a few times and it is like regular forge welding but just a little hotter. just dont get it sparking hot. Much of your success will depend on the quality/ make up of your wrought iron. They are not all the same and some crumbles and some works just fine.

Here is pic, not etched, recently sanded kind of clean after it got rusty in the sink during a power outage. Wrought and w2

 
Its from Aldo's ship chain so I assume the quality is decent. Do you have to be very careful to not deform the steel core?
 
this is actually a pretty easy weld. you need little to no borax, the shit is not glue and using a lot does nothing but eat up your forge floor faster.

heat the wrought until it is bright yellow to white, as it is going past orange pull it out and apply a small amount of flux, just enough to coat the wrought evenly. put your O1 onto the wrought and put back into the forge and heat it until the O1 is bright red to orange weld as normal from there.
 
I see. My only question would be how would I make the outer wrought jacket even? If i heat the wrought to yellow/white then weld it to the O1, what would I do about the other side of wrought?
 
You could notch the wrought iron and insert the bit into it just like a bit on a chisel. Are you making a laminated blade with the O1 center?
 
It seems that you could weld the wrought to the O1 as described then do the same with a second piece of wrought. Just lay the welded piece with the O1 down on it.
 
Good point. It would be difficult to get the thickness of the wrought to match.
 
draw out the wrought to twice the width of the blade fold it in half lengthwise around a piece of the O1 you are going to use tap it down so there is a good fit remove the O1 core and proceed as described above only place the O1 into the folded wrought instead of onto the wrought.
 
I had been thinking of something similar to that. Do you think i should put the O1 in cold and then heat or heat the O1 to red and then put it in the orange/ yellow wrought?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top