A fairly basic pattern-welding question

Prometheus · 2007-12-29T16:02:30+00:00

Hello all,I decided to try my hand at making some damascus-style pattern weldedknife blanks, and it's working more or less all right. Just a coupleof quick questions for those of you who have done this, if you havethe time to answer.First off, what I'm doing, at least for this first try, is using anold chainsaw blade that was bead-blasted and then soaked in acetone toget it as clean as possible. I then had a friend of mine fuse ittogether and weld it to a handle to make it a little easier to workfor. So far, so good. I've got 20 mule team borax for flux, andwhile I've heard that anhydrous borax is better, this stuff seemsfine, and is doing the job well enough. I'm doing all the heating ina forced air propane forge, and have missed a couple of welds, butabout 90% of them seem to be pretty good.All that being said, here are the questions I have been asking myselfwhile working on this. The first is a matter of flux- being a littleless than completely confident about my forge welding technique, I'vebeen putting about a tablespoon of borax on each time I put the pieceback in the forge. As you might imagine, this has made a real mess ofthe firebricks I've got on the bottom of the chamber. Any clue as tohow much flux I *should* be using? It's working, but I get thefeeling I'm probably overdoing it a bit.The second is a matter of gas setting- I can't for the life of meremember if I want more or less oxygen for the best weld. So far,I've been running the mix really gas rich, with a low stream of forcedair. Again, it seems to be working all right, it's just a matter offiguring out if I'm making more work than necessary for myself.Third is dealing with small cracks. At this point, after about 3folds and maybe 12 or 13 heats, it's looking pretty good- but thereare one or two areas where there is a small crack on the surface thatis apparently a spot where the weld did not take fully, as they looklike the partial outline of a chain link. Any chance that...

Dec 29, 2007 23 Replies

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Todd Rich 18 years ago

If you ever get a chance to stop by his shop, it is an experience. And yes, all the books by him a very good to have.

Hmm...that is weird. I've had the original in mine for about 8 years now. (However I really haven't used it for 6 years of that due to no place to really work) and it still hasn't eaten more than a 1/3rd of the way through. I've seen several types of kiln shelving, and this is the type that looks like amost like granite and feels very dense. The water in borax shouldn't have any effect, it gets burned off very quickly.

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Todd Rich 18 years ago

Todd Rich wrote: (snip)

Not awake yet this morning. Sodium Tetraborate Pentahydrate.

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alvinj 18 years ago

Cool! At least I didn't have to jump your butt over that one. ;)

Found it right off... used Martin's posted-link and hit the "welding compounds & babbit" button.

There are ways to deal with that sort of crap. :) I call my method "passive-aggresive".

Anybody else here ever see the short-film called "The Passive Aggresive Gunslinger"? The "bad" bad guy ended up shooting himself due to massive amounts of frustration caused by the P-A "gunslinger". :)

Alvin in AZ ps- cool thread, P! :)

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