welding chain.Help Ed!!

I could use some good solid advice here Ed. I just spent 6 hours at the forge trying to weld up some chain saw chain, and even after following the tutitorial on the subject, all I ended up with was a bunch of crumbled up chain, a spent bottle of gas, a bunch of new blisters and a severe case of aggravation!! Is this simply a miserable material tht doesn`t like to be welded with a hand hammer or was I just so impressed with my first cable attempt that I fooled myself into thinking that it would be easy? Please explain your technique for this so mabe I can figure out what went wrong, Thanks a lot!!

Chain can be a fickle beast. It usually requires a good deal more effort to get a clean billet than with most other materials. The specific brand/type of chain often has a lot to do with whether one is successful. I have taken to using mostly Oregon brand chain, only because I know it contains no stainless steel, which most of the cheaper brands of chain do. On standard size chainsaw chain I usually just wad it up as tightly as possible, and work it in the press with flat dies. The small stuff is very difficult to do by hand. Most of the time I use a very large version of chain that comes off of logging equipment in this part of the country. It's approx 1 1/4" from the cutting tooth to the guides. With this chain I layer it up as I would regualr damascus and weld. My personal preference is to draw it out as much as possible and then grind off the scale, cut it into as many pieces (3-4" pieces) and restack it. Most of the time it will take 7-10 layers before everything is solid, and all the voids disappear. Don't feel bad about it, it's a tough material to go after right out of the gate. It will just take some time and effort to get the hang of it.

Thanks Ed. I think I will hold off on chain until I acquire either a press or power hammer. no matter how much I heat and beat, I just could not get it to weld succesfully. I think my next attempt will be a low layer billet of random 1095 and L-6 cut from some large old sawmill blades I was given yesterday. I will let you know how it turns out.