[TheForge] Borax (Was: A36 vs 1018)

[Chuck Robinson]

I was wondering if you had observed any problems in welding your Damascus 
billets.
 About  30 years ago a friend of mine did an informal  study on welding 
quality in Damascus billets.
 He viewed the weld zones in several sections of each billet, with a 
scanning electron microscope at Mississippi State.
All though I had made about 35 Damascus blades by that time, and the welds 
looked fine to the naked eye, weld quality varied in my samples from 50 to 
90%.
Samples from some famous knife smiths, at the time, averaged about 75 to 
85%. Needless to say, they were less than pleased with the findings.
Since then I have been exploring many different options for improving the 
weld quality of my blades. Improving the fluxing process is one of them.
Chuck
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Andrew Vida" <osan at netlabs.net>
To: "Blacksmithing List Sponsored by ABANA" <theforge at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Tuesday, February 17, 2009 8:30 AM
Subject: Re: [TheForge] Borax (Was: A36 vs 1018)


> Several.  How is this relevant?
>
> Chuck Robinson wrote:
>> How many damascus blades in those 30 years?
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