I've been trying to come up with a popcorn texture to replicate the base of a deer antler, but haven't had any luck with my stick machine and old 7018 rods.

Being more of a good grinder than a good welder, it's nice to find something that bad welds are actually good for.   When life gives you lemons....

 

That's not porosity in the weld... that's the holes for blood vessels to pass through!  

I'm really going to have to try this with my Multi-Plaz..

-J

Interesting. Years ago I had one of the guys working with me do all the welds on some chisels we used for brick patterns on stamp work for the same reason. He welded the edge very irregularly, then I ground the face smooth so the chisel had a "wavy" edge similar to old chipped bricks. My welds were too good and consistent and I had a tough time screwing them up enough to do what we wanted.

My welds were too good and consistent and I had a tough time screwing them up enough to do what we wanted.

Not a problem I'll have to face any time soon!  

Bad welding comes naturally to me, so this wasn't too much of a stretch.  I did everything wrong that I could think of, from shaky hands to holding the rod too far off so I could paint the area with the arc.  Sometimes it wouldn't look right and I'd grind the offending area down, but it's a great way of using those little odd bits of metal to build on top of.  So far, I haven't been found the right recipe to make it look like the crown portion of an antler, but there's still hope.  Or, I'll find someone with a MIG welder to do the popcorn texture for me.

 

J.W.S. -- if you do, post pics.  I'd love to see how you apply my "technique"!

I've seen some guys who do some beautiful build up work with tig for stuff like this.

I remember one quad-state when the knifemaking demo had a fellow doing a can weld and had his assistant weld shut the can---someone asked him about possible issues heating a sealed container to which he replied that his welds were never that good---and then the can welded up by his assistant popped in the forge!

Me, I'm *safe* from that problem!