Welcome to another episode of Spear Born of Fire in which I will continue creating a wolf
tooth spear.
In the last two episode, I consolidated wrought iron for the spear socket and then formed
it over a swage block.
Now, it's time to forge weld the socket so that it becomes completely closed.
Forge welding works best when the material to be welded is completely free of scale.
That's a little bit difficult to accomplish when the socket is essentially closed already.
We'll try out best here.
As we will be heating up the socket with the mandrel inside, I coat the mandrel in graphite
to make it easier to extract later.
The challenge I have with forge welding sockets is two fold.
The material is thin and cools done quickly.
Also, since it is thin, it is easy to over forge it.
I applied flux to help prevent scale from building up and am now waiting for both the
mandrel and the socket to come up to heat.
I follow the seam with the hammer on both sides so that I get a complete weld.
Unfortunately, I am a little bit afraid that I don't have enough heat for the whole seam
and work in sections.
Ultimately, it takes me about 4 heats to complete the weld.
How well this really worked we will see later when I start tapering it.
After forge welding, we need to extract the mandrel.
This took a lot of force and convincing.
The video does not quite do justice to our struggle.
The socket right now is not shaped right and needs to become more slender towards its top.
To taper a socket or tube, I used a V-shaped die underneath the power hammer.
It is important to hold the socket completely horizontal to the die and rotate it smoothly.
Also, the hits from the power hammer need to be quite gentle.
After I am reasonably happy with the socket, it's time to prepare the wrought iron that
will form the core of the spear head.
I am forging it roughly to the dimension of the top of the socket to make it just small
enough so that I can insert it.
As it turns out, the opening of the socket is a little bit too small and we need to make
some adjustments under heat.
To prepare for welding, both surfaces need to be cleaned and free of scale.
Also to create a smooth transition from the socket to the core, we need to scarf the socket
and that will prevent a visible seam and step we would get otherwise.
Once everything fits tightly together, it's time to go back to forge welding.
At this point, I would also like to say thank you to Jim Austin from forgedaxes.com who
showed me this technique.
If you are interested in any of this, Jim teaches great classes in Oakland.
Check out his web site.
As you may notice, I am forged welding everything to square first and round it back later.
Once the welding is complete, I go back to fixing up the taper since the forge welding
created quite a noticeable transition in diameter.
As before, I do this on a V-shaped die and slowly rotate everything.
Once I am happy with the taper, the part of the core that sicks out needs to be prepared.
As with all my pattern welding, I like bars that are roughly 3/8 of an inch thick; that's
about 9 mm.
I am also forging in a small tip but that's about it for preparing the core of the spear.
I hope you liked what you saw and will stay with me for the completion of this project.
There is a lot more yet to come.
As always, if you like these videos, please spread the word.
If you have not subscribed yet, now is a good time to engage in this life changing activiting.
It is not going to hurt all that much.
Just try it and press the subscribe button.
See you next time.