How to Forge Weld Cable into Damascus

[kraythe]

I have been perfecting my cable welding technique and I thought I would share what I do and hopefully it can be of some use to people. As usual I am open to any suggestions should people have ideas.

Materials

1. I get all of my cable as scraps from crane rigging shops. Open the phone book or google and search for "Rigging" in your area. Call them up and tell them you are a hobby blacksmith and that you are looking for scraps of cable that you can have. Volunteer to sign any legal waivers. Some companies will be worried you will try to use the cable as is and hold them liable. Tell them you plan to destroy it so they don't have to worry but you would be happy to sign a waiver if they wish. Usually they will give you scraps for free. Try to get pieces four feet long or so if you can. Only get steel cable, no fiber or plastic cores.
2. You will need a good flux built for gas forges (I don't do coal). TheZ Weld brand from Blacksmith Depot works well. You will need a good amount for each cable. If you skimp on flux you will fail.
   

Equipment:

1. Gas Forge. I dont do coal because of lung issues but I am sure it could be done. Careful with coal heat or you could burn the small cable strands easily. Gas is easier.
2. Angle Grinder with grinding wheels.
3. A metal pan made out of 1/8" plate with sides at least half an inch high that fits the bottom of your forge. You will be using a ton of borax and it will make a lake in the forge and eat your insulation like candy. If you dont put in a pan you will be replacing forge parts and end up with a mess. Consider the pan expendable as it will need to be replaced.
4. MIG or stick welder and appropriate consumables.
5. Vise (post or big machinists if you are like me and cant afford a post vise)
6. Pipe wrench big enough to go around the cable.
   

Process:

1. If your cable is four feet long or so then you are off to a good start. If you have an 8 foot piece, see if they will cut it for you. If is shorter like a foot or so, you will need to weld a piece of rebar to use as a handle. Don't mess with tongs if you can avoid it as it will slow you down a lot.
2. Take a welder with low settings and weld the ends of the cable to keep from unraveling.
3. Put the pan in your forge and fire it up. Let it get nice and hot.
4. Put the cable in the forge and heat the thing yellow in stages, working up the cable burning off grease and then move up to burn off more. Walk yellow all the way up the cable. If you have a long cable you can flip it around after you put half of it through. Get it nice and yellow to get rid of anything organic. When you get to the other end you are ready to start welding. Oh and use a lot of ventilation. The smell will be nasty. Beware of toxic fumes and pissed off wives (the second is more dangerous).
5. Put the cable in and heat about six inches of the cable to yellow.
6. Put the cable welded end in a vice and twist opposite the strand direction. The cable will open up like a basket on a blacksmith project. You dont need it really wide, just enough to be able to get flux inside the cable.
7. Brush off the cable while hot, flux everything well. If you spare the flux at any step you will fail.
8. Now begins the welding steps: From now on when heated, you will bring the cable to welding heat so that the flux is visibly boiling. Remember the core must also heat so be willing to soak the cable in heat.Also remember that speed is much more important than force. Although force is needed, if you let the cable sit outside 15 seconds, you have to reheat it because your chance to weld is done.
9. Heat the 6 inches to welding heat, pull out, quickly put it in a vise and twist it back together hard. Re-flux. When you are twisting, constantly brush off scale.
10. Heat the 6 inches to welding heat, adjust a pipe wrench to the cable while heating. Pull out and quickly, set the pipe wrench just above the 6 inches and twist tight. Dont go too tight so that the cable starts to buckle, just tight so the cable has the same thickness but tighter coils. This part takes experience. Then re-flux it.Constantly brush off scale.
11. Heat again and then get ready to hit it with a hammer and anvil. At this point it will be convenient if the anvil is warm. I usually heat a piece of thick steel to yellow and before I get to this point let it sit on my anvil warming it. Once the flux is boiling yank it out and start hammering while turning the cable with the direction of the wrap. You will hear a thudding sound that indicates its not totally welded. The thudding sound will become dinging sound as you weld it. This step may take you several heats. As soon as you lose heat, reflux and reheat. You will have only a few seconds per heat. Speed is more important than force when hitting. If you have a striker or a young teenage son like I do, put them on the hammer for the hammering. That will allow you to spin the cable while he hits. He will probably hit way too hard at first. If you are flattening the cable at that point, you are hitting too hard. Don't use a power hammer. It hits too hard. Make sure you brush it before you flux and put it back in the forge.
12. Once the whole 6 inches is dinging nicely then you are done with that section. Push down 6 inches and start working on the next six inches repeating the welding steps. Once you are past the center of the 4 foot cable, flip it around, let it cool a bit, and continue working until you get to the other end.
13. Now that the whole cable is welded, straighten it on the anvil and even on the floor if need be.
14. Time to grind. Set up your angle grinder and protect your eyes and lungs. At this point the steel will be welded but there will be ridges in the steel from where the cable bundles were. If you skip this step and forge something from the steel, you will introduce cold shuts and ruin whatever you were forging.
15. Using an angle grinder or belt grinder with a rough belt, grind down the cable to the point where the ridges are ground out of the cable. You will be left with a solid bar of pattern welded cable steel that you can start forging flat or whatever you need.
    

At this point you can fold it and forge weld it, cut and stack it or whatever suits your fancy. Its pretty hard steel to work but can be done by hand. If you have a power hammer, I am envious and I stick out my tongue at thee! Life will be easy.

I hope this helps. Let me know how yours turns out. I might add some pictures later but my shop is a disaster now and the weekend project will be to clean it out. :(

[teenylittlemetalguy]

Thanks for the post.
I wanted to add that I typically buy the cable new and have had very good luck not untwisting it to get flux inside. just twist tigher and flux the exterior. I believe old cable probably does need it.
I usually cut off 8 inches and weld on a rebar handle, as if you need to take a break while welding a 4 ft piece it is very hard to pick up a weld where you left off and you will get a bad spot in your work.
Would love to see pictures of your finished rigging cable welded up. also what do you patina with after an etch?

[Francis Trez Cole]

I weld a lot of steel cable I use coal. I found that an orange heat is better twist tight and slowly and lightly tap the strains together you will feel the cable turn solid at that point I flux and forge weld I use Borax. great description. I keep my pieces about 8 " and have welded as many as 7pieces of 5/8" in a bundle.

[kube60]

I have an old piece of cable that is somewhat meaningful to me. Long story. Anyway, the cable is fairly rusty. Is there any way to save it so I can still use it?

[kraythe]

Sure. Rust is just iron oxide which would burn off fast. Unless the cable is so badly rusted that it had no more structural integrity it should work. Just follow what I did.

As to a cable having sentimental value that is ... Odd. But hey, each to their own I say.

[pkrankow]

I have an old piece of cable that is somewhat meaningful to me. Long story. Anyway, the cable is fairly rusty. Is there any way to save it so I can still use it?

How rusty? If it is too rusty then the cable will be a pencil before you are done. I don't know how rusty is too rusty though. Taking the cable apart and cleaning it is an option.

I did a cable weld using straight wires. I tied them together with soft iron wire and heated them, then twisted in the vise and hammered. I got similar results, but have not done anything with the experiment yet. I did loose the end inch or so from grabbing the ends at dull red and getting the first good twist in. I just considered the ends a loss and kept grabbing them in the vise to twist at higher heat.

Phil

[kraythe]

How rusty? If it is too rusty then the cable will be a pencil before you are done. I don't know how rusty is too rusty though. Taking the cable apart and cleaning it is an option.

I did a cable weld using straight wires. I tied them together with soft iron wire and heated them, then twisted in the vise and hammered. I got similar results, but have not done anything with the experiment yet. I did loose the end inch or so from grabbing the ends at dull red and getting the first good twist in. I just considered the ends a loss and kept grabbing them in the vise to twist at higher heat.

Phil

You know that might not be such a bad idea if you could find wires made of steels with dramatically more contrast. The pattern in cable is often quite a bit subtle. If you could mix 1040 with say 15n20 (the normal stack) but instead use wire or 1/8th rod, that could be interesting.

[pkrankow]

I used insulation hangers which are a soft spring steel. They are sharpened by cutting during manufacture, are rather resilient, very hard to cut, respond dramatically to annealing, and appear to harden in a water quench. My "billet" is about 1/2 inch square and 8 inches long. I planned on doubling it over, but may not.

I need to practice fire welding first. I consider this billet a fluke of luck.

Phil

[Francis Trez Cole]

I have been messing with high tension cable the type used to make poured concert floors it works very differently lower melting point.