Blacksmith "welding"

"SteveB" wrote: (clip) the two "wings" were "welded" together. I am sure this is a blacksmithing term, as there were no welding processes available at that time. Can someone describe how this is done? ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Before oxy/acetylene, stick (arc), and all the shielded forms, there was "forge welding." The steel was cleaned, raised to a glowing heat, sprinkled with flux, and then hammered together on an anvil.
These old pieces are usually recognizable by the lap seam visible around the edges of the weld. And, YES, some of these pieces are incredibly beautiful.

"Leo Lichtman" wrote in news:JgXWe.52265$ snipped-for-privacy@bgtnsc04-news.ops.worldnet.att.net:
Good description, Leo.
Further info is readily available on alt.crafts.blacksmithing where there are quite a number of people who routinely use this technique.

No "" needed. Just where do you come up with such definite knowledge about welding processes and their availability through time, when you don't understand the most basic welding process of all, which has been around longer than all the other ones put together?
It is welding - the fusing together of two pieces of steel.
Heat provided by coal or charcoal, shielding gas also provided by coal or charcoal, and slag (flux) provided by borax. The flux also provides the last bit of shielding when the steel is removed from the fire.
You heat, you flux, you heat more, you hammer. Getting it right is a bit trickier than sticking things together badly with a MIG gun (which, if you learn about things from TV, is apparently the method of choice, and there's no need to look at the weld, wear a mask, gloves, coat, apron, or any protective gear at all. Funny they don't show the "sunburns"...)

The idea is to have both sides in the now sharp end being forge welded. Once it starts to heat a handful of flux is thrown between the two - trying to keep scale back and form a glass scale across the inside.
Then more heat and then as the metal is very hot, a strong arm hammer begins to add more heat by compression and M*A (mass times acceleration) :-) This under the face of a hammer elevates the iron or steel to a fusing point.
Multiple times back into the forge and more flux - more hammer blows - as the edge becomes one. Then it is cut off to the shape wanted (the metal way - chisels).
Then the normal metal process of bringing new hot metal to strong usable edge.
Martin
Martin Eastburn @ home at Lions' Lair with our computer lionslair at consolidated dot net NRA LOH, NRA Life NRA Second Amendment Task Force Charter Founder
SteveB wrote:

Forged welding has existed for a long time and is still done by blacksmiths and production machinery today. Google "forge welding". There are a wide variety of weld joint styles. Some are a simple scarf joints common in woodworking to specialised wedge and socket connections. The hammer and heat is what fuses the parts together. My Father was a European trained blacksmith. He practised a bit of the art in the '30s as an new immigrant. In the 1970s he returned to the small town in northern Alberta where he started. A local recognises him after forty years and asks him if he is going to start up a shop locally. Being able to forge weld carbon steel edges to worn plow blades made him popular. Randy
I was watching Old West High Tech the other night. They were describing how certain hand axes were made about 1850.
A butterfly looking piece was made. Then it was folded over around a shaft or shaped rod to make the pocket that would take the wooden handle. Then the two "wings" were "welded" together.
I am sure this is a blacksmithing term, as there were no welding processes available at that time. Can someone describe how this is done?
They made some incredibly beautiful stuff with the tools they had to work with at the time.
Steve

"My Father was a European trained blacksmith."
Well, shucks, Randy. You never told me that. My wife and kids and I belong to a local chapter of "ABANA" the "Artist Blacksmith Association of North America".
The truth be known, we are more "blacksmith groupies" than "blacksmiths". In fact, Alma recently volunteered as editor of the monthly newsletter of the local chapter of "ABANA", this being "HABA" (Houston Area Blacksmiths' Ass'n.). Their web site is I highly recommend to the original poster, that if you're interested in forge welding, you find a local chapter of ABANA and join it.
You will be swept into a fascinating world as old as civilized mankind.
Vernon
R. Zimmerman wrote:

Relax, Ecnerwal. Your retort sounds quite harsh for someone who had the wherewithal to ask an honest question.
Eide

The irony of it is that he got his tail in quite a knot when he discovered me in my late teens making a home made forge from a 20 gallon barrel, some light plate and a furnace blower. He considered it a low class occupation and not worthy of me I guess. I could have learned a lot from him but that is not how he saw it. His apprenticeship experience was typical of a Charles Dickens story. Randy
"My Father was a European trained blacksmith."
Well, shucks, Randy. You never told me that. My wife and kids and I belong to a local chapter of "ABANA" the "Artist Blacksmith Association of North America".
The truth be known, we are more "blacksmith groupies" than "blacksmiths". In fact, Alma recently volunteered as editor of the monthly newsletter of the local chapter of "ABANA", this being "HABA" (Houston Area Blacksmiths' Ass'n.). Their web site is I highly recommend to the original poster, that if you're interested in forge welding, you find a local chapter of ABANA and join it.
You will be swept into a fascinating world as old as civilized mankind.
Vernon
R. Zimmerman wrote: blacksmiths

Randy,
I didn't see your reply for a couple days. I'm working from a hotel in Alvin, Texas, only 30 miles inland from Galveston. Tomorrow I'm gettin outta Dodge, goin' home, and hope to find time to board up the windows on our house before the gulf hits the fan.
There are all kinds of people here, displaced by the hurricane in N'Awlins. Now they're facing the turmoil all over again.
Anyway, sometime read the story of Samuel Yellin, the grandfather of American blacksmithing. His parents didn't want him to be a blacksmith either.
But it was his passion. And his work is timeless even though he has passed on. Funny how it's so hard for people to just let other people be themselves.
Regards, Vern> The irony of it is that he got his tail in quite a knot when he discovered