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I Forge Iron

A hot day for welding


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Whew! I needed to make up a few baskets for some fire place tools and cooking forks I'm going to build. ( I weld up the bundles and twist them so I have a few on hand when I need them). After welding both ends on 8 baskets, I had to go jump in the pool. It's too hot today.

Some might call it cheating but when I make baskets, I cut the bundle of rods and MIG weld the very ends to hold them together for forge welding. I've wired them together, used hose clamps, and folded them but this way is easiest when I'm in my own shop.

I've heard that a lot of people have trouble with forge welds but the only time I have problems is with welding a small item to a larger one....like a leaf to a branch.

Steve

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What you are doing is not "cheating" it is called using the best tool for the job. This is the way I do them also. No shame in using your noggin to make things better. I am sure if my Grandpa had a MIG welder, he would have done the same. He could forge weld, but why would you if you can make things quicker and easier.....:)

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I like to forge weld. It's relatively easy and somehow just "feels good". I started using a MIG for just light fab and repairs here on the farm and found that "tacking" parts together made forge welding a little easier. You can't tell it was ever done after the forge weld and subsequent operations.

Steve

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It is an easy quick way to do things. The first forge I had at the mill wouldn't forge weld well. When I did fire pokers with faggott welds I bent the metal over heated it up and then welded it with the flux core welder. Once re-heated and hammered smooth, you couldn't tell the difference.

Use the best means available to to the job or situation you are in. At the mill when they are open from may through september, everything is mid 1800 and done primitive. The rest of the year anything goes like at my home forge once it is complete.

Reb

The Civil War Blacksmith
Union Mills Homestead and Shriver Family History

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People are funny sometimes. I am honest with them. When they ask if an item was done all the old way I will tell them yes or no. "I want to see this done ALL the old way". I just tell then that's fine, it will perhaps cost more money. If they have an issue ( request for modified piece from one I stock ) I will sometimes ask them if they really care about technique. Some items are really tough made in the camp shop ( in that I have limited tooling and tools ). Welding at a camp can be troublesome from time to time. Most will step back if asked to but some have to get splattered. I would never hurt anyone purposely. MIG, and gas welding are fine. Plasma is fine. All in good taste and place. I fake nothing.

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Francis Whitiker, blacksmith most high to some, always championed doing blacksmithing the way blacksmithing was intended. There were many discussions about this on the ForgeMagic forum several years back. Those who had a problem with anything not original blacksmithing soon started calling it "True Path" blacksmithing. Wish I could remember who coined that phrase.
Recently, I was flipping through some old Anvil's Ring magazines and stopped on an article by Saint Francis. This in itself was very unusual for me. Something was said about tack welding or wiring multi pieces together for forge welding. I can't quote the statement made by St. Francis, but in short he said it's only extra metal and that's good. Until I read that, I really didn't give a hoot nor holler about how Francis does/did things. Still don't hold him up as "St. Francis", but now I will read some of his writings.

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Ahh the "old way" is about 2000 years earlier than Kerosene lamps. I sometimes do Y1K smithing and it's not the old way by any means...Don't forget telling them that using real wrought iron will increase the material cost substantially!

I prefer to use the term "twisted path" for my work as it can be anything from forging Ti in a propane forge to using bloomery iron I have smelted myself and a charcoal fueled pit forge with paired single action bellows and a "lump" anvil.

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One of the things that still amazes me with blacksmithing is the sheer number of ways that different smiths come up with to work the same job.
We make jigs and develop tools to make the job easier, why should our smithing ancestors be any different?
I hate seeing so called 'blacksmith made wrought iron gates' being advertised when in fact they are cold machine bent mild steel gates covered in (hit and miss spatter) welding.
I do not have a problem with 'modern' welded parts as long as they are done tidily and you are honest about them to yourself and your customer..
Hopefully this will make sense
wayne

Edited by Mod01
implied language
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I make fire grates for cooking. These have mig welds. First thing I have ever taken to camp ( to sell ) with modern technique. Most don't care but I DO explain that this is modern made stuff. Then some ( non camp/soft handed/smart mouthed individual) asks if I have a jig to weld these grates. I reply yes. "Oh, so you have a JIG then " . I say "sure, I went to Home Depot and told them I wanted a welding fixture to build 26 x 18 " fire grates, oh, and I need the one to make the legs too...you know the ones that drive in the ground." I am more polite than most normally but there are times......

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I try REALLY hard to do my smithing in the oldest fashioned way I can as a Reniassance re-enacter...but when the bundle for the forge weld won't stay put long enough to get welded in the fire, well then the ARC welder is now the oldest fashioned way I have available :) It's all a matter of perspective!

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I have made tongs to hold a bundle together while I bring it to temperature. It worked well and was much quicker than wire or weld. That said I was making enough that it was worthwhile to do that and then the tongs with a little rework became something else.

True path was coined by R Smith to defend John C's comments IIRC. I miss those spirited discussions mainly cause RRRrrrah is as funny as John Fe. sniff Thanks for the memories Herr Rubberbush. ;)

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Considering the material we are using---mild steel/A36 was still being introduced in the 1880's and 1890's (they discuss how it works differently and needing different welding fluxes for it in Practical Blacksmithing, Richardson, 1889, 1890, 1891), anyone making a fuss about methods needs to pony up for real wrought iron and if for medieval times, bloomery made wrought iron rather than osmound or puddled wrought iron! Or as I put it "The metal that is being used only dates till after you could buy levi jeans at the drygood stores".

If you tell them the cost and the time price increments they will generally decide that A36 will do just fine!

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HAHAHA The old way, do you ask them how old, i can do things the mid 1900's or how about you go back 1000 years or go back what is it 3000 years when all there was was copper. people alwaye say the old way but never really specify a date in time, and don't let me get started on place, a smith from England would make something completely different from a smith in Africa!

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