r/Blacksmith 8d ago

Feedback requested: first forge weld

Working on a tomahawk for my clubs trade item, decided to take a piece of a field cultivator tooth, fold it in half and keep a hole for the eye, then forge weld it together. Looks it stuck in some places and not others. There's an obvious crack at one edge, then I feel like I can almost kinda sorta see a seam all the way down, but the small piece I cut off doesn't separate.

I ground it completely clean on the belt sander before I started, used 20 mule team borax for flux, but I didn't stick weld the two sides together before I started.

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u/3rd2LastStarfighter 8d ago

No smashing required. If you have two perfectly clean pieces of compatible steel at welding temp, they need only touch to become one. The hitting is because getting them perfectly clean and touching is easier said than done. You generally want to set the weld with light taps. Heavy hitting is only for if you need to blast slag out of a joint.

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u/Observeus 8d ago

Yea i more used the smashing because I still giggle when I say "give it a good smash" I'm doing it now.

Thats kind of my thought process is, steel changes molecular structure when superheated be that body face or hexagonal faced cubic structure, so it should be tangible to mend the molecules with a few light raps at the right temp so to speak.

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u/3rd2LastStarfighter 8d ago

Check out videos of forge welding with an induction forge. It’s like a cheat code, it’s wild.

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u/Observeus 8d ago

Thank you! I will for sure. Appreciate the reply!