I've often heard that it's near impossible to weld nickel to itself in a forge. If you're using pure nickel in a damascus pattern, do you always need to have a layer of steel separating the nickel? For instance, wleding a chevron/herringbone where you have opposite twists welding together. Will the areas where nickel is touching itself be "flawed"? Likewise when building up layers, if you surface grind before restacking sections, should you add in another thin strip of steel to ensure there isn't two nickel layers butted up?

Thanks.

Yes, Don, very thin shimstock is sufficient, but a wise "inclusion".

There was a time when I would have said that nickel "could not" be welded to itself.....but it just isn't true. The key is preparation. Nickel creates a great deal of oxides, and can be very difficult to weld if these oxides are not cleaned up prior to "folding" or re-stacking. If you take the time and effort to grind the surfaces clean between stacks/welds, things should be fairly easy. I routinely weld nickel to nickel when making various damascus billets.