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Old 11-05-2017, 01:25 PM
jimmontg jimmontg is offline
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Join Date: Jan 2016
Location: Now live in Las Cruces NM.
Posts: 1,345
Carl, if he covers the blade with a damp rag to prevent any spatter from getting on the blade and spot welds the ends of the pin, I don't see any problem if he has a MIG welder and he practices doing spots with it. I would quench in water immediately after tacking it just cuz. It would impart much less heat to the blade than soldering a guard on would and I rarely ever solder a guard and I leave a cold wet rag on the blade when I do. The problem I am wondering is if the wrought iron is iron or is it black scaled steel? A lot of wrought iron is just plain mild hot rolled A36 steel which welds OK if you grind the scale off. Pure wrought iron is very uncommon, but it welds great. It so uncommon that most people have not even come across it. The problem is if the WI is made from scrap steel which is also out there. A test piece will tell him what he has.

The only guards I ever spot welded the pins on though were stainless, sterling silver or bronze, not brass, I have never used steel for a guard. (I used a MIG on the stainless a couple of times) For a carbon steel alloy knife I usually used brass or bronze when I could get it. Pure bronze is very uncommon too. Much of what passes as bronze has zinc in it and is actually brass. I do not recommend welding brass with an arc weld of any kind without a fan to pull the fumes away from you because zinc vaporizes under an electric arc and is no better than welding galvanized steel. I used to have to weld brass and I hated it because I had to wear a respirator and it was hot enough without that.

By the way the zinc isn't poisonous, that's a common misconception you actually need 100 mgs of it a day, but the hairy long filaments that you see when it burns are bad if inhaled and they are in the smoke. A HEPA filter on your respirator will block them, but have the fan too because if you don't you'll walk around for a couple of days with a strong metallic taste in your mouth and you won't be able to taste your food very well either. Also you don't want that crud in your hair. Don't ask how I know this.
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