Without question, Thak is one of the best smiths on TH-cam. I think he was reincarnated from the Middle Ages, when he was hovering over a primitive forge, hammering out swords and axes.
As always, I enjoy your videos. Educational and entertaining. Seems like a bit of a crap shoot when trying to forge weld high-carbon/alloy steels to mild or wrought iron bodies (I presume because of the varying welding heats and the chromium content seems to be a killer). To my fellow Canadians: Loosen up your wallets, get over to patreon and support a fellow Canadian blacksmith who does us all proud. When it gets down to it, he is giving us all free blacksmithing lessons. A few bucks his way keeps him solvent and we benefit from his expert advice.
It's my understanding that wrought iron has a much higher welding temperature than carbon steel does, so it's _real_ easy to burn the carbon steel, at least until you've done it enough to have it figured out. Thanks for sharing and I look forward to the follow-up video!
It's great to see that even people as experienced as you can have troubles (at least when trying new things). I don't know if it makes blacksmithing feel more accessible or like a beginner is gonna struggle immensely. I plan on getting into the craft within a few years. I guess you can only try to find out :) Thanks for these videos, Thak.
Terry Sheridan has done some really good research on how adze eye tools were made historically, it differs from how you did it. In terms of welding the edge, the problem is that tool steel burns earlier that mild steel does which itself burns earlier than wrought iron. Wrought iron had a huge, and much hotter, forging window. When I do it, since tool steels burn quicker than wrought iron or mild steel, I use a wedge/triangle shape and completely embed it, with the wrought iron/mild steel tapering out very thin but still covering the tool steel. That way if anything burns, it’ll be the sacrificial wrought iron/mild steel on the outside, not the tool steel on the inside. By using that wedge shape of tool steel, I can then draw it out and, if necessary, grind off that sacrificial outside. In theory, you could do this by having the wrought iron/mild steel already be hot, put in the cold tool steel (I’ve seen this done by putting teeth in it so it grabs) and then put it right in the fire. That way the wrought iron has a head start, so it’ll hit the temperature it needs to weld at the same time the tool steel does. In practice, I’m not nearly coordinated to pull that off, unfortunately, although I’ve seen that done making a hammer head.
@@ThakIronworks I don’t remember all the details, by any means, so you might to reach out to him directly, but the parts that stick out are that the taper on all adze eyes are the same, regardless of size (3/4” per 12” and 5/4” per 12”) and that the long part of the eye was a separate piece forge-welded on.
I appreciate the video, it definitely gave me some good insight on working with wrought. I am planning on doing a full set of Dark Ages wood working tools for a friend of mine, so I am going to be playing with a lot of it.
Wrought iron and steel and the weld. My thought is that the steel should be completely covered by the wrought iron. That way the outside if the "sandwich" can be brought to welding temperature for the wrought iron while the steel inside reaches its lower welding temperature at the same time, thus avoiding burning up the steel. I think I would look for a lower non sparkling heat where the wrought iron surface is swimming with minimal sparklers. At that point I think you can meld both metals without damaging the steel. It's tricky but doable.
My hot punches and hot cutters are not heat treated as I need them to go deep and heat treating them is pointless. High carbon steel with no heat treat is sufficient to cut hot steel
Sometimes those farriers rasps are just case hardened. I hope that's not the case. If it is you're a better blacksmith than when you started the project and that's what matters.
Loved the technical term used” burned the shit out of it”. Wished I had a dollar every time I did that.....
Without question, Thak is one of the best smiths on TH-cam. I think he was reincarnated from the Middle Ages, when he was hovering over a primitive forge, hammering out swords and axes.
0:35 "Adze quite a level of complication to the whole process" nice
Came here to comment that!
;)
As always, I enjoy your videos. Educational and entertaining. Seems like a bit of a crap shoot when trying to forge weld high-carbon/alloy steels to mild or wrought iron bodies (I presume because of the varying welding heats and the chromium content seems to be a killer).
To my fellow Canadians: Loosen up your wallets, get over to patreon and support a fellow Canadian blacksmith who does us all proud. When it gets down to it, he is giving us all free blacksmithing lessons. A few bucks his way keeps him solvent and we benefit from his expert advice.
It's my understanding that wrought iron has a much higher welding temperature than carbon steel does, so it's _real_ easy to burn the carbon steel, at least until you've done it enough to have it figured out. Thanks for sharing and I look forward to the follow-up video!
It's great to see that even people as experienced as you can have troubles (at least when trying new things). I don't know if it makes blacksmithing feel more accessible or like a beginner is gonna struggle immensely. I plan on getting into the craft within a few years. I guess you can only try to find out :) Thanks for these videos, Thak.
10:40 seems like it got a little toasty
Well done for a first go round. That iron looked tough as nails.
THAK VIDEO DAY!!!
Wrought iron is sweet, old school forging!!!!!
Nice video
"We got good penetration, and isn't that what we are all looking for!?" I had a good laugh when you said that!
Terry Sheridan has done some really good research on how adze eye tools were made historically, it differs from how you did it.
In terms of welding the edge, the problem is that tool steel burns earlier that mild steel does which itself burns earlier than wrought iron. Wrought iron had a huge, and much hotter, forging window.
When I do it, since tool steels burn quicker than wrought iron or mild steel, I use a wedge/triangle shape and completely embed it, with the wrought iron/mild steel tapering out very thin but still covering the tool steel. That way if anything burns, it’ll be the sacrificial wrought iron/mild steel on the outside, not the tool steel on the inside. By using that wedge shape of tool steel, I can then draw it out and, if necessary, grind off that sacrificial outside.
In theory, you could do this by having the wrought iron/mild steel already be hot, put in the cold tool steel (I’ve seen this done by putting teeth in it so it grabs) and then put it right in the fire. That way the wrought iron has a head start, so it’ll hit the temperature it needs to weld at the same time the tool steel does. In practice, I’m not nearly coordinated to pull that off, unfortunately, although I’ve seen that done making a hammer head.
curious to hear about terrys experience with adze eyes and wrought iron
@@ThakIronworks I don’t remember all the details, by any means, so you might to reach out to him directly, but the parts that stick out are that the taper on all adze eyes are the same, regardless of size (3/4” per 12” and 5/4” per 12”) and that the long part of the eye was a separate piece forge-welded on.
@@ThakIronworks I believe Lloyd Johnston also has a lot of experience working wrought axes
I appreciate the video, it definitely gave me some good insight on working with wrought. I am planning on doing a full set of Dark Ages wood working tools for a friend of mine, so I am going to be playing with a lot of it.
Pretty sure you just saved me a lot of heartache.
Glad it was helpful!
@@ThakIronworks very! Thank you again!
Awesome! And it looks like plenty of steel was left over after that little incident...
spoiler alert...we filmed the conclusion yesterday....successful heat treat
Wrought iron and steel and the weld. My thought is that the steel should be completely covered by the wrought iron. That way the outside if the "sandwich" can be brought to welding temperature for the wrought iron while the steel inside reaches its lower welding temperature at the same time, thus avoiding burning up the steel. I think I would look for a lower non sparkling heat where the wrought iron surface is swimming with minimal sparklers. At that point I think you can meld both metals without damaging the steel. It's tricky but doable.
Looks like that punch got quite hot. Didn't that heat damage the temper on it?
My hot punches and hot cutters are not heat treated as I need them to go deep and heat treating them is pointless. High carbon steel with no heat treat is sufficient to cut hot steel
@@ThakIronworks oh ok. I was under the assumption that all punches had to be heat treated. Good to know. THAKs for the tip ;)
Sometimes those farriers rasps are just case hardened. I hope that's not the case. If it is you're a better blacksmith than when you started the project and that's what matters.
I usually see the wrought get wrapped around the eye, so the grain flows around instead of being split through.
I tried that and it works great for the eye, but the transition of shape from eye orientation to blade orientation was not working for me.
@@ThakIronworks yeah no doubt, the adze shape gets weird... maybe then a quarter twist? Haha I don't know.
Another nice video, thanks Thak! When are you going to give me a T-shirt?
(I’m his brother)
I like Adze but not Ads 😁
I thought about using that pun....but I refrained
My Experience with Wrought Iron I destroyed it no bull mate I turned it in to soup. (: