Welding Rod Damacuss

Has anyone tried to make pattern welded steel from welding rod with the flux removed? Kind of like cable on steroids.

Dave Huffman

What is the carbon content of welding rod? Because if that is mild steel, there is really no point in making welding rod Damascus.
Cable has enough carbon.

There are many different types of welding rod with different carbon content. Hard facing rod & nickle rod come to mind. I will do more research on this & see what Info I can find on the carbon content of different welding rod.

Slawman

I think it would be possible to make Damascus out of, basically by making mosaic Damascus.
For normal forge welding I don't quite see how you can hammer it without everything coming apart.

You can weld pretty much anything in a can. I'd especially recommend this if you are going to use exotic alloys and/or nickel above a few percentage points. Once nickel has oxidized in a hot fire, as in pattern welding, you won't weld it to anything again, unless you put it in an oxygen free container.

Lay the materials to be welded up in the pattern you want inside of a metal box. Then weld all the seams shut except a tiny hole or two. Some welders will put a piece of paper inside the can, others will soak it in a flammable liquid. With enough heat you will see the internal combustibles burning away (a small flame from the hole you left), and can be fairly assured that all the oxygen inside the can has been consumed.

It is possible to include or exclude the material in the box from the billet. Generally square tubing has been commonly used, so you have a layer surrounding that is mild steel. Some will carefully layer materials inside that will not weld, like heat treatment foils, to prevent the box from welding to the patterned material. Then it's possible to simply chisel away the box after you don't need it any longer. Once the billet is welded it should be able to be worked in forging without the can, but with weird materials that is no guarantee. You will need to consider working the billet evenly to keep the pattern from distorting.

All the routine requirements for welding should be observed, e.g. a reducing fire, correct temperature, sufficient tooling to work the material.

I was thinking of welding the ends like cable damascus then take a heat & twist it & then go to welding heat to weld it. Then shape it to make razors from. This is just an idea I had. I don't have a shop now & it will be a few years before I do again. Just mainly wanted to put the idea out there for now.

Dave Huffman

Another thought is to forge the rods flat before welding them together. I would use a stop block on the hammer to get the rods all the same thickness.

Pretty sure most MMAW electrodes are made from the basic base steel with minor antioxidant elements included and most of the real weld elements to comply with the final weld materials is from the flux,
MIG & Brazing wire contain the essential elements in the wire due to the flux less process used
But either way unless you have high carbon electrodes your carbon contents will be to low for a razors edge, unless you laminate a quality steel between the wire Damascus

If you were going to weld this stuff in a can, you could buy some high carbon powder metal. Pack that in tightly around all your rods and it won't matter if they were low carbon or not. https://www.knifeandgun.com/ProductD...ductCode=10845

I have powdered 1084 ready for use ,I bought in a bulk buy for future playing, plenty here in Aus have used it with great success

Interesting thought, but if I was to do it, I'd likely go with 1084/1095 powder and can weld it. Reason being, I've never had a perfectly flaw free billet of wire rope. I've never seen a perfectly flaw free billet of wire rope either. The best I can do is get it to where there's only a few near microscopic shallow pin holes, but I'd think that'd be enough to cause issues with shaving. Another thing to think about, with normal wire rope the edge is a bit more "toothy", so I don't know how well it'd hone up for shaving. Might be fine, might not. With normal wire rope damascus the pattern is mostly from the decarb from around the wires. Larger wires means more carbon to iron ratio and better edge holding, smaller wires means prettier pattern but not as good an edge holding due to more iron to carbon. A possible solution is a sanmai construction, put wire rope on the outside and 1084 or such for the core.