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Where to get mild steel for welding?


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Since this was posted in the knife making section, its safe to assume you are pattern welding for blades, no?

If that is the case, then you dont want to use mild steel. The carbon content is far too low, and even if you weld it to a high carbon steel, carbon migration through the two pieces will render the high carbon steel a moot point. And after decarb, youre pretty much not going to have anything even close to resembling blade worthy steel. 

Recommended steel for beginners to try to make damascus from is usually 1080 or 1095 and 15n20.

I would recommend learning to forge weld mild steel to mild steel just to practice welding. You are going to mess up a few times (or a whole lot if your case is similar to mine.) Better to learn the necessary skills on cheap mild than expensive blade steel.

Also, read the stickies that are all over this section of the forum. Most questions you may come up with have already been answered there, including most of the info i just typed, and much, much more. 

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Oops, I think I should have specified by saying doing San-Mai welding or sandwiching instead of patternwelding. I was planning to get used mild to mild welding then go to simple layers of low/high/low then into the actual patternwelding. 

From what I understand, having a high carbon core and a soft outside/back is alright with carbon diffusion, right? As long as the core is thick enough, that is.

Yes, I have read throughout this forum and found that 15n60 and 1084/80 were the steels to go with in the beginning. 

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2 minutes ago, CreekSideForge said:

From what I understand, having a high carbon core and a soft outside/back is alright with carbon diffusion, right? As long as the core is thick enough, that is.

Yes or no, depending on a lot of factors. If you get it up to forge welding temp enough times, that carbon will become homogenous. 

San mai is tricky. I would recommend doing standard stacked layers of high carbon steel before trying that, and only that after practicing with mild. This way, you will know how to weld high carbon, and how to weld the layers together efficiently and with as few heats as possible, so you can control the migration in your san mai goal. 

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Never a problem. Always willing to (try to) help. Lord knows i wouldnt be anywhere near where i am now without the help of the forum folk. 

Allow me to reiterate that you should read up on the stickies and knife classes. Lots of good info there, put together by masters. It will shorten the learning curve, trust me.

And do not allow yourself to become frustrated when you fail. Learn from your mistakes, disect your failed pieces, research and ask informed questions if you do not understand. 

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Take notes! If you document what you do and the results it WILL really speed the efforts. It's really too bad cameras do such a poor job of accurately recording glowing steel or they'd really eliminate a lot of trial and error. Unfortunately. . . <sigh> However you CAN print out a color temperature chart and use it for reference in your notes. Notes are your friend. 

Good notes should include alloys and stack order, soak times, apparent color, magnetic or not, etc. 

Frosty The Lucky. 

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Sounds like a plan. You dont need the 1084 on the outside, ive had 15n20 on the outside, but it can be a bugger welding to itself. If you have one piece of 1084 on the outside and a piece of 15n20 on the other end, it works well. That way, you can cut it in two (or more) and stack the 1084 against the 15n20 so you never have a double layer. Makes the pattern more consistent. 

I try to keep the intial billet around 5 inches long so i can have the entire thing right in the hottest part of the fire, and all up to the same temperature. I use a charcoal forge, so idk if its any different using gas. I dont like welding one half and then rotating to weld the other half. Some people have success this way, but ive found it simpler and more effective to weld the entire length in the same heat. 

Oh, and NEVER strike the billet below red color. You may not break a weld on the first hit, or maybe even the tenth, but thats unnecessary stress that will only hinder you.

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Both sentences you wrote are exactly why you should start with mild. Get your head wrapped around how big the billet should be, how much wire to use, how many heats before you can remove the wire, etc, BEFORE you make the first cut on the good blade steel. 

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