i'm the super novice at blacksmithing and at my first fire up of the wilson forge we made attempts at using saw blades that are l-6 steel but when attempting the forge weld we ran into a few problems so anyone have any tips and hints for me?:confused:

was it cleaned before ya tried? what it hot enough, what did you use for flux, how do you know it was L6 ?

Give yourself a couple of years to get the basics down and you will up your success rate a lot Enjoy

As with Steve, I would look to preparation of the stock for the billet and forging temperature first. ANd, As Rich says, it can take awhile to get the hang. I have been smithing a longtime and have no probblem with welding regular work, but I still get nixed by blade welding sometimes.

It takes patience and pratice mate.

i see you have tried to jump in way over your head you really should try and master the basics as rich said and in a few years your secuss rate will rise dramaticly

practice makes better practice

I Still Think Forge Welding Requires Magic!
So, I'm Going To Town To Get A Bucket Of Chicken Lips & A Box Of Frog Feathers !

the blade was clean i used borax as a flux and the company that makes the saw blades i used uses l-6 through the heat could've been a little low i guess and maybe pete's onto somethin

Maybe!
Oh I'm Hurt!!!!!!!!

When I forge weld I have plenty of coke under the work as well as above it and heat till the flux is bubbling pretty aggressively the steel will be the same color as the hottest part of the fire, and when you take it out the first time give it a few blows to stick everything together, re flux and heat again to a welding heat before you start pounding on it. Get some cable and practice with that. Its already binded together and has a handle attached. 3/4" or 1" is pretty easy to start with. Get it hot and place it on the step of the anvil that way each blow is hitting it in three differrent places to drive it in and remove the air space. If this is your first time forging it would be best to start with something that does not have to be forge welded and learn to shape the steel and make as few hammer marks on your final heats coming out of the forge.

S0002 Making Your First Forge Weld

Hi Noob blacksmith. Have you tried this weld with mild steel (try several different sources, and have somebody show you once)? If you cannot get it to stick with mild, you may have trouble with the more complex stuff, especially alloy steels. Junk iron pipe is less variable than rebar, but don't get gassed by zinc fumes. This happened to me once when I did the old muriatic acid trick and failed to get a piece behind some hard water scale. It shot out this greenish blue flame which made me step back. Also, try the "stick" test. Use a tapered rod or two 3/8" bars with no flux. Put them in the forge and see if they stick in the fire. If they don't stick, you probably cannot weld. Not "certainly cannot weld", since I once failed the stick test in an unfamiliar side blast coke forge, and I also could not weld. Then a British trained smith stepped up and nailed a fluxless weld:confused:

what kind of problems did you encounter, i am a fairly new smith been doing this for a few years, and i tried to weld a blade right off the bat, i weled up hacksaw blades and mild steel in my charcoal forge to check the temp i twisted some bailing wire together and would heat it in my forge and try to weld that. i actually welded the blade succesfully( so i thought) until it totally came apart on me during the filing my next blade was a marginal success as most of the welds took and but it had several cracks and coldshuts and i had to remove so much material that it isn really viable as a knife anymore. but just go slow and keep at it. clean the metal thoroughly and make sure you flux well and check the welds after each pass and before you fold, nothing ruins your day like a blade you've been working on for almost a week falls apart in your hands :(