February 5, 200917 yr A friend and I took a load of metal to the scrapyard last week while there we found a large drive chain of some sort. The chain looks like a bicycle chain only scaled up extremely large, about 6 foot long and 50 pounds or so. We tossed it in the back of the truck and took it back to our blacksmithing class. We joked about forgewelding the thing into a solid bar and then making several edged tools with the resulting billet. We both will finish the blacksmithing program at our school this semester. My question is what could we do with this massive chain? Take it apart and use the pieces, forgeweld a small length of it, forge weld the entire thing, or just scrap it? Thanks for your help and ideas.
February 5, 200917 yr Really hard question there without even seeing the chain BUT why not try welding a bit and seeing if it will harden and temper then you will have a bit more of an idea of what it is good for.
February 5, 200917 yr it will make nice demascus blades most chain is high carbon i would forge weld it in to a billit
February 5, 200917 yr Smaller chain I cut into 4 to 6 inch lengths and stack several pieces together and then forge weld this into a billet. You could do the same but may not have to add as many pieces. Once the piece is welded and forged to shape start grinding. If you get a little blue spot or blue line it is a weld defect. Once the piece is finnished etch in acid or feric chloride to see the pattern.
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