I think I am going o have a go at making some woodworking chisels with the japanese style laminated construction.
My plan was to use some thin L6 from a coping saw blade, laminated to some bright drawn 1018 by cutting both into equal and appropriate blanks, fixing together with wire after thourough cleaning and application of flux, heat to a bright orange heat and smack'em together. I would then follow this by forging to shape, arc welding on a tang etc.

Please point out the schoolboy errors, and any tips would be greatly appreciated.

You might have an easier time arc welding the ends of the stacked blanks together instead of wrapping them with a wire. Otherwise, sounds like fun :)

If you have not forge welded before I think you should expect a LOT of failures; it's not as easy as your description! If you can get someone who does it often to coach you through your first one it should save you weeks of trial and error.

Here in the US a coping saw is a blade that is extremely small like a couple of mm in width that uses a sprung frame to hold it taut. You would need a bunch of them to make a chunk of steel big enough to weld on for a chisel edge. Different usage over there?

the coping saw blades i've seen are pretty small. is there a picture you can show me?

Why weld on a shank when you can forge them down from the stock you are making?

Sorry; fleeing the country; back in the USA and online Monday.

"smack'em together." If you hit the stack too hard the pieces will simply bounce apart. The idea is to tap on the stack when the surfaces become liquid so that the pieces stick together.

thanks for the advice
sorry, my bad. I meant panel or tenon saw
on the welding, i will probably practice with some mild steel to get the hang of it before using the high carbon.
I am presuming they weld the same?
thanks again
alfie.

not at all. the mild is harder to weld, and needs more heat, basically after you understand mild, the Higher carbon will seem easy I start my apprentices on mild. its a good way to begin.

i would probably just make the whole thing out of steel ... lamanateing blades are neat but not really nessary .. make sure you harden and temper it properly and you will probably end up with a better chizel... forge welding steel has a tendency to burn the steel especially starting out..good luck!

Laminating was done a lot when high carbon steel was hard to get. I'd just use good steel and selectively harden or temper so the edge is harder than the shank.

Good Luck!

a wrought iron shank with a pice of steel shut on the underside at the tip etches up well ,and makes a nice tool ,when we made sets of wood chisels i made a birds mouth weld with the steel in the middle and forged out thick, then ground back to the steel on one side and the bevel on the other ,it was a quick way to make a tool.

Laminating was done a lot when high carbon steel was hard to get. I'd just use good steel and selectively harden or temper so the edge is harder than the shank.

Good Luck!

There's also the matter of tempering accuracy -- both in consistency in steelmaking and in tempering methods. Backing dead-hard steel with iron makes for a tough tool which can hold an edge.

Why I fancied having a go at making a laminated chisel was because the blade could be ground all the way up to the hilt, while staying tough and hard, without re tempering and other related nonsense
but i think I will wait until I have a more reliable forge
my setup is currently just a massive torch on a firebrick hearth
which can get to welding heat - i tried with some success welding very small bits together, but not with any reliablility at any useful size
but i am making a #proper' forge, so may well reawaken this when it's finishes
thanks again.