That old timer at the hammer-in changed my mind about welding

I've been strictly forge welding for 8 years, thought MIG was cheating. Then this guy named Dale at the Portland hammer-in last Saturday showed me a knife he did with a MIG stitch weld on the tang. He said 'the steel doesn't care how you stick it together, it just cares if it holds.' Watched him do a bend test right there and it held perfect. I bought a small MIG setup the next day. Anyone else had their whole approach flipped by watching someone work?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_max1mo ago

Fair enough, but a good weld only fails if the prep was garbage.

xena_brown5029d agoMost Upvoted

Wait hold on, @logan705 you're telling me you've actually seen MIG welds on knife tangs develop microcracks from heat cycles? That's wild, I always figured a good weld was a good weld no matter how you got it done. Three customer knives failing in one year sounds like a solid reason to be picky about your method though.

logan7051mo ago

Hell, I'm gonna push back on this one. That bend test only proves it held once, not that it'll hold up after years of use and heat cycles. I've seen MIG welds on tangs develop microcracks over time, especially if the filler metal isn't perfectly matched to the steel. Forge welding might be slower, but when you get a good weld the grain structure blends right in. MIG is just putting a bead on top. I've got an old Bowie my granddad made in '78 with a forge welded tang that's still solid, and I've fixed three customer knives in the last year where the MIG weld let go. Your mileage may vary, but I'd rather trust a bond that's part of the metal than a patch job.