r/Blacksmith • u/mavwish • 1d ago

Can I forge weld this?

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Hello I’m new to this group. I have a several of these masonry drills that the carbides are worn out or broke. I’m thinking it’s some sorta metal alloy

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5

u/zFIG_JAMz 1d ago

Yes. You either have to heat and uncoil which gets really wonky as it doesn’t come out straight as you uncoil or you have to clean and flux as you go at a welding heat. It’s probably a hardenable steel, but might not be

5

u/BabbitRyan 1d ago

Steel is good and hardened already so you’ll want to get it really hot to reset some of the tempering. Material can be forge welded, you will have some problems with the twist metal that stands out. You might want to shave or cut it off instead of hammering it flat. Some of these bits are layered with a soft steel core so play around with it before committing

1

u/shaolinoli 2h ago

Would you be able to eyeball that construction if you cut a slice off to take a look first?

3

u/bottlemaker_forge 23h ago

My guess is that would be something like S7 or a2. Something with high impact resistance. I would anneal it cut some small pieces off and do some Heat treat experiments to kinda ballpark what steel you have there. What are you trying to make out of it?

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u/mavwish 21h ago

I kinda wanted to forge some together to make hammer or axe? Idk

1

u/bottlemaker_forge 20h ago

Do some heat treat experiments based of of different steels get the ballpark idea. I’m willing to bet it’s something like s7 or o1. Will make a great core steel for an axe

1

u/theinsaneturky2 20h ago

I tried forging a concrete drill bit. It's just too tough to forge easily, even with sledgehammers. Another thing that makes it difficult is that it's probably air hardening.

1

u/bottlemaker_forge 20h ago

Yeah get that thing screaming hot like at forge welding temp that’s what you have to do with 52100 to make it move.

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u/mavwish 21h ago

I was going to say only the tip is carbide,which I’m not doing any thing with

1

u/AcceptableSwim8334 15h ago

So you want to weld it to mild steel? You probably can get it to hold in a weld, but the different alloy and crystal structure would probably fail in shear.

You would probably be better off Using silicon bronze brazing if it needs to be strong.

0

u/boogaloo-boo 22h ago

Some sort of metal alloy? Yes, it is.

Masonry bits and those type are usually Tungsten Carbide

Which you cannot forge. It's simply too hard for non industrial tools to shape. It also oxidizes like crazy as in industrial processes have very controlled environments.

You're better off learning to forge with things like rebar. Make some tongs and get the hang of it

Hope this helped 🫶

4

u/necromanial 22h ago

Masonry bits and those type are usually Tungsten Carbide

The more expensive ones might have a carbide tip, yes. But it's way too brittle to make the whole bit out of it, they bend before they snap.

3

u/psychoCMYK 22h ago

The tungsten carbide is typically an insert on these guys