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I was thinking about making some 5 metal, pattern welded billets and was wondering what the more experienced peoples thoughts were on the forge welding of these steels together. Is heat treating going to be difficult, or a problem? Thanks for any help or advice you can offer. 52100, 80CRV2, 15N20, 1095, 1075

Alright, so every now and then I get some baaaad welds, and I thought I'd just confirm with you guys whether or not this is a good way of eyeballing a bad weld early on: As we cal see from the pic above - a piece of the top layer of steel has a different heat color than the rest of the billet. This made me suspicious.... And as I grind the bastard down - there you have it... Bad weld.... I didn't want to take any chances - so I put the angle grinder to it and cut off every last trace of that bad weld. However - a question for you guys; is there a better way of doing it? Can one simply just heat the billet hot as hell, and make it stick? Note that all of these steel pieces were clean as a whistle before I started - so I assume the bad weld is because of temperature and not clank or anything. Sincerely, Alveprins.

Hello, so I'm trying to forge weld some thinner pieces of steel that I have, I do know after spark testing that these pieces have a decent carbon content. I managed to get the metal up to a light orange color while fluxxed. I proceeded to hammer the pieces together at this temp but I could not get the pieces to stick. They were properly cleaned with a grinder before tack welded together. I will add some pictures of the pieces soon. But as for now does anyone have any suggestions or ideas as to why this is not working for me. Also should be noted that I am using a forced air wood forge.

Yesterday I started welding together my first billet of Damascus steel. I started out with six layers of bandsaw blade for my initial weld, which I then welded, drew out, cut, stacked, and welded again. Before I spend too much time on this billet I would like to know if it will show any pattern at all when etched, given that it is made out of only one alloy of steel

A while back, I began a small project. It was to take old bits and cut-offs of various high carbon steels as well as a 15n20 circular saw blade I cut up and forge weld them together to make my first piece of damascus. I gave this random patter the ever so creative name of "scrapmascus". The idea was that the random shapes and sizes of the bits would create a purely random pattern, which it did, but it came with some project ruining welds that actually left two very noticeable gaps in the blade. Does this concept make it impossible to not get a bad weld, or should I just chalk this up to lack of experience and a power hammer? I have a bunch of 1075 and 1095 cut-offs that I'd like to try again with, but I don't want to bother if it's not possible to do it.

After quite a few failed attempts at making damascus style blades, I finally had one succeed. The steel used is 5160 spring steel and some medium carbon steel from the railroad. I have 64 layers total. The scales are made from Osage Orange, which is another first for me, and the pins are copper. I am rather pleased (and relieved) about how this one came out.

Last weekend I made my first attempt at trying to forge weld. I've been wanting to learn for quite a while, with the intention of working my way up to welding up some billets eventually. I decided to start by trying a few chain links. Out of five links that I attempted, I may have gotten one to stick. Couldn't knock the joint apart with a hammer like the other four, so it might have actually welded, but I'm not sure. It seemed like the forge was not getting hot enough. I've read elsewhere about people forge welding billets at 5 psi with the same forge, but mine was just not getting there. I cranked it up to 15 and left my steel pieces under the back burner for a good 15-20 minutes, but they never got to anything that looked like a welding temperature to me, a middling to bright orange at best, while inside the forge. I was hoping to see the yellowish, wet-looking surface that I've seen described so often, but no luck. Also, the front burner is definitely not as hot as the rear one. When I bought the forge 8 years ago, it came with a paper that described how to set up and tune the burners, but I have long since lost it and can't find any info online about tuning it. After reading the pinned "Buying a Gas Forge?" thread, I'm realizing that NC Tool forges and atmospheric burners in general are not the best way to go. I'm starting to look into building my own blown burner forge, but in the interest of working with what I've got in the meantime, I was hoping that someone out here might also have an NC Tool Knifemaker and could give me some tips on getting it to run better.

I am getting ready to forge weld a new billet with 1095 and 15N20. I was thinking of sandwiching the billet with some 1/8" mild steel to try to protect the billet as it is being forge welded and drawn out. Your imput would be greatly appreciated. Thank Matt