seen the suggestions about using pallet strapping for practicing pattern welding with and i was wondering if i need to clean off the blued finish before stacking ?

I don't. I do prefer the ones where the material is blued rather than painted but I'll use either one in my billets.

I have been told by a few guys not to worry about the mill scale or blue on pallet straps...far be it from me to disagree with Mr Powers (over 4K posts)...lol but i find that when i weld i like very clean surfaces....ruffed up even a little....it seems to increace my percentage of succesfull welds....

I left it on mine and mixed it with industrial hacksaw blades. Turned out real fine. Sold quick too.

If you are having difficulties getting a good weld dropping back to first principles: clean material, clean deep fire, low air flow, etc is the way to go. If you are not having difficulties then you can cheat!

My last billet started as 25 layers of BSB & PS, folded and welded 4 times (400 layers) and then smashed into a disk lengthwise (stood up on end and hammered down into a disk) The welds held.
I hadn't cleaned the PS at all, (but it wasn't rusty). So I think I can get away with not cleaning them...

400 layers.... see he is way over my head...lol.... u have a press dont you Mr Powers? I also notice a press is the ticket for pattern welding

Civilwarblacksmith....how do you sell that piece of damascus??? i use these materiels cause they r cheap to practice with...u r telling me its not a bad combo

No I don't have a press, (well I do have a large screwpress and a powerhammer but the screwpress is nowhere near the forge and there is no power to the powerhammer yet...)

That's why I use lots of small stuff to start. Easier to get the layer counts when working all by hand.

Did my first billet around 1983...

thats great makes me feel a little less inadequate....I can only hand hammer right now...I also just recieve JPH's knife making book ...he goes over the billet subject....I am putting a piece together as we speak.....Thomas I hope I am not offending you by being a little precocious...lol

Edited December 19, 201015 yr by Moderator42

I clean everything till bright and shiny. Need the odds stacked in my favor :-)
Neat thing about bsb and ps scrapmascus, doing it by hand gives some nice variations to the pattern.
btw Thanks Thomas

after the normal heat treating the knife edge sharpened and held up well. It's not that much of a difference from mixing mild steel with other high carbon steels. Just make sure that there is more high carbon than mild.

If you are worrying about decarb or alloys mixing lower on the C scale you can always juice it up with a nice 1.2% C piece of file in the middle of the last fold to make a san mai with pattern welded sides.

I've done it that way several times when I was just fooling around and ended up with a pattern I liked but low in total C.

Bruce, what for?

I like using several different bsb(metal and wood both) and sometimes handsaw blade.
Also I use several types of spring steel that's in the carbon ballpark. I figger it ends up in the low to middle 70'sC.
Thomas , for that envelope I got a week or so ago.

Bruce I am in your debt for sending that metal; the least I could do was see that you were not out of pocket from your kindness!

I've been sharing it around too.

Thomas

Good!
I been getting a kick outta this "scrapmascus" name. Thanks for bringing it up jock!

thanks for all your worthy replies. by coincidence i was thinking of adding in some pieces of handsaw blade (you know the hardpoint, "throwaway" types) i also have access to power hacksaw blades but was avoiding them as they are the bi-metal type. i also have an 18"x 4"x 1/16" piece of 01 ground flat stock but was saving it for when i get a bit more proficient.

bi metal blades weld up lovely. I knock the teeth off them with an angle grinder (wear resp. protection!)

My saw takes 10'6 x 1.25" M42 bi-metal and they allways get welded into a billet when they are changed!

Do you grind off all of the M-42 part? Some blades seem to just have high-speed teeth and some appear to have high-speed going back 1/8 of an inch or so.

Blacksmiths not only do they scrounge other people's discards they re-work their own as well!

(Of course I save my scale as well to re-smelt into iron as finding good ore is usually the hardest part of backyard smelting...sweeping your scale out the door just to go and drag a magnet in the local creek bed to get the same stuff seemed like a waste to me...)

Or as was said about a friend of mine "One man's trash is another man's treasure; but Terry's trash is NOBODY'S treasure!"