I fired the forge today and learned some things.  I had a cable choker follow me home the other day, and today I decided to see about forge welding it into a solid chunk to be used for something.  I learned that welding old cable is not the easiest task in the world, but can be done.  This cable is 7 strands, each strand is 9 individual wires. (actually that's the center strand, the outer 6 strands are 18 wires, with the outer being about 14 gauge, and the inner being about 18 gauge) Best I could do was to open it up some, and soak it in laquer thinner for a while. That got the worst of the grease and oil, but the blue whatever it is between the wires didn't budge.  I left it open, and tossed it into the forge to burn off whatever is left.  Got it hot, and twisted it back together, added some borax, and back for a welding heat.  Found that It worked best by welding a few inches at a time, using a swage block, and turning it in the direction of the twist.  Anyway, got it welded up, and looked ok. but a couple cold shuts on the outer strands near one end.  (They were taken care of when I started forging it to shape)  Now, what to make of it?  well, I hadn't made a blade in a while, so mabe I'll make a blade of some sort.  So, I set about doing just that. I usually let the steel tell me what kind of blade it wants to become. I just bang on it as it forms it's self to the shape it wants to be.  Well, after a few heats, I could tell that it wanted to be a short blade of some sort. A few more heats and I could see the shape of a Tanto comming forth. So, that's what it wanted to be, a Tanto, of sorts.

The blue or other stuff in steal cable are "stress bands" if the cable is pulled too much above it's rated working strength the stress bands get squeezed out through the yarns as a signal the cable has been stressed. 

Normally oil and grease soaked through cable is a good thing and you can ignore it to weld it up. Well, the smoke can be annoying but it should be burned out before removing it from the fire. It makes a good flux. 

Another thought is borax is water soluble an old jewelers trick is to mix a saturated solution in clean water to get flux penetration in small spaces. 

I look forward to seeing your finished blade. Are you going to etch it? 

Frosty The Lucky.

1 hour ago, bluerooster said:

I usually let the steel tell me what kind of blade it wants to become.

Same here, when I tell folks that they look at me as if I'm joshing them.

Are you going to etch it?

 I don't know. Still undecided on that as yet.

An "American Tanto" as that design was not very common in Japan historically.  (I blame Cold Steel for it becoming the norm over here!)