[TheForge] Damascus (Was: power hammer OT)

[Mike Spencer]

> Who has experience with welding air hardening steel?

Very minor experience.  I once made a small piece from m/s and VW
Beetle front torsion spirng leaf.  Forge welded it shut into a ring
(the kind you wear on your finger.)  It worked very nicely and that
was before I was very confident of my welding.

The problem was that I couldn't file the resulting ring until I had
put it into the coals of my kitchen range for an evening and then
allowed it to cool overnight in the ashes.  Heh.  Air hardening it
was.

I have no idea what the composition of VW spring is but it's
incredibly springy "as found" but nearly brittle as glass after red
heat and air cooling.

- Mike

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Michael Spencer                  Nova Scotia, Canada       .~. 
                                                           /V\ 
mspencer@tallships.ca                                     /( )\
http://home.tallships.ca/mspencer/                        ^^-^^

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