[TheForge] Welding SS

[Jerry Frost]

Last weekend I tried forge welding some SS and mild steel for a damascus
forge shovel. (Yes, I'm definately suffering shovel envy after George posted
the pics of his fire tool set. <sigh>) The SS is 5/16" thick, I sandwiched
it between 1/4" mild steel. I cleaned the contact faces on the belt sander
and migged the billet on the corners. I heated it till the flux just melted
then fluxed it. Then I brought it slowly to red and refluxed then brought it
to welding heat with plenty of soak time. Well, after three repeats to
refine the "weld" I was able to work it on the edges and decided it was time
for the first fold.

Anyway, it was a complete failure, total delamination on cutting for the
first fold. I used a mixture of 4 pts borax to 1 pt. boric acid for the
flux. I'm going to see if I can find sal amoniac when I run into Anchorage
today. Still, I expected SOME weld and didn't get it.

I'm wondering if the type of SS makes a difference. I used some 304 SS from
the shop scrap bin. Should I use something different? This is going to be a
shovel blade and so has no structural nor edge holding requirements. I'd
just like to make something a little flashy while I experiment with SS.

Frosty
------------------------
If it ain't forged
it ain't real.
Wrought iron is.
The FrostWorks

Meadow Lakes, AK.