tomahawk ?s for Allen L.(or anyone else too)

[magua]

Last weekend i got a bunch of this stuff, apparently wrought iron (photo is a section sawed partway through at an old drill hole and pounded cold to a 90 degree angle), all 1 1/8 x 3/8". I'd like to try a forge welded wrapped tomahawk, with a piece of file welded in at the bit.So far i've not tried to weld anything.I'm using a Tai style forgebeque with charcoal as fuel and wood ashes as the lining. Should i use borax as a flux,including where i'm trying to join the wrought to wrought? Is there any flux that's non toxic so it woud'nt get into my forge's ashes, me, etc. ? Also the iron has alot of old black paint on it(likely lead base) i'm gonna try to clean off somehow.
Thanks for any info-ideas and for the tomahawk tutorial, etc. you've posted on the net.

John

[Alan L]

Looks like wrought to me! Yeah, get the paint off, and use borax as flux. It can be done with clean white sand, or ground-up mud dauber nests, or magic fairy dust, but borax works best for me.

A forge-b-q oughta work fine as well, just remember wrought needs to be hotter than mild to weld, like in the full sparkly white range. It'll weld to your file at a lower temp (always weld at the lowest possible temperature for the steels involved), but usually won't stick to itself below nearly white hot.

Have fun, and show us pictures when it works.

[magua]

Thanks Alan. I've got almost 200 feet of the stuff from an old garden arbor. If fire welding is as tricky as i've been reading though, i may just have only a picture of the re-assembled arbor in my back yard(minus a strip or 2)LOL

[Alan L]

There's no real trick to forge welding, it's just a matter of all the variables being in place. you just need heat, clean metal, and a neutral fire and the weld has to happen.

That's where flux comes in, it helps keep the iron clean and prevents new oxide layers from forming. Too much air in the fire will blow it every time, pun intended. Also, just tap it together the first few times, if you whack the snot out of it you'll have blown the semimolten layer that welds out of the joint and it won't stick either.

Oh, and you'll have to experiment to find your personal secret tongue position, that's important!

[brucegodlesky]

experiment to find your personal secret tongue position
and proper hat position also :-)

[Robert Mayo]

Like Alan said and be carefull not to bite your tongue good luck and if it don't work the first time bite your tongue and try again!

Bob