I knew aluminum was forgeable,  but forge welding not so much,  interesting video just the same

 

Of course sharp is only *1* of the requirements for a good blade. Several decades ago A.G.Russel took an Al beer can and flattened it and bent it in two and then honed it till it would shave---just wouldn't hold an edge for long.

Most of use have had a paper cut, sharp but you don't see many paper "using" blades...

13 hours ago, ThomasPowers said:

 

Thomas, there are so bad mass production qualities on the market, that I dare to suspect or guess that this aluminium blade could outperform some of them.....altough it must be very light weight I dont want to think of the aluminium abrasion, which is not very appetizing.

 

.....

Made no claims to being a great knife.  Just found the process rather interesting

 

11 hours ago, Dogsoldat said:

 

Sorry, from now till the heat death of the universe you're name will be associated with the kitchen stove welded aluminum foil knife. 

I'd like to have his sharpening stones. 

Frosty The Lucky.

So did you watch the pasta knife one too?

I was just listening to a lecture by a materials scientist at MIT talking about precipitation hardening of aluminum and how the engine block in the Wright Flyer was made of precipitation-hardened aluminum. A great example of the cascading of technological advances: the wide availability of aluminum made possible by the development of the Hall-Herault process leading to advances in the metallurgy of aluminum that enabled the Wright brothers to use an engine that was both light enough and strong enough to create the right power-to-weight ratio for powered flight.

Nothing about whether or not it was strong enough to make a knife, though.

I was wondering if the many surfaces of the Al foil created a lot of aluminum oxide "layers" distributed through the "billet" that would help in the edge keeping---but require the use of diamond hones...  If I hada guess...

7 hours ago, ThomasPowers said:

So did you watch the pasta knife one too?

No, one was enough. Worth watching?

Al oxide wouldn't require diamond stones to sharpen, the super dupper hard particles simply pop out of the al matrix, just like diamonds from a core bit. 

Frosty The Lucky.

But you want to keep them just like the carbides in a HC knife!

I didn't watch it either---seemed like a one trick pony.  I've seen collections of prison shivs that were better knives in MNSHO.

That guy is cool! He even made a kitchen knife out of smoke residue. By no means a good knife, but really funny to watch. 

I believe that some folk are missing the point. It is my belief that the OP was showing that it was an interesting process, that it could be done. Not as a recommendation as a fantastic methodology for manufacture 

However if you don't state that; then you mislead a lot of folks who don't know any better.

Lots of metals can be "forge welded" as is covered in "The Solid Phase Welding of Metals", Tylecote.

You probably have a point. 

Look at the large numbers of people who have fallen for the "forge lined with plaster of paris and sand".  We've had a number show up here and not be happy when we tell them it's NOT a good lining material.

I can't believe I watched the whole thing!

You've a stronger stomach than I and mine is pretty much cast iron. 

Frosty The Lucky.

Another 11:11 minutes we will never get back.

On 4/3/2019 at 9:18 AM, Irondragon Forge & Clay said:

Another 11:11 minutes we will never get back.

Looked at from that angle we may not have to think about him much longer!

Frosty The Lucky.