One thing for sure, there are plenty of ways to sharpen tungsten, for $ and $$$$ Yes, I believe you are correct. I already have a belt grinder that I use to make knives, and I also have a small bench grinder that I only use with a wire-wheel brush to remove dirt from steel (the belt grinder is much...

I can say there should be a limit to your concerns. Agreed - I'm more "concerned" from an academic/interest point of view (i.e. learning the theory), rather than being concerned regarding the actual weld... my welding quality is still way below the point where things like minute contamina...

OK - that makes sense, will probably not notice any big difference, but it certainly won't do any harm to polish lengthwise. Those who weld professionally the most exotic and specific materials, have extreme regimens for tungsten prep and care. Care to elaborate - I'm always interested in such thing...

Thanks for your reply. Always grind longitudinally. Why would that matter on the shaft of the rod? I can understand that longitudinal scratches (i.e. grind marks) on the tip will have a smaller influence on the arc formation than transverse scratches, but cannot think of any reason why the direction...

Thanks for the info - much appreciated If you're really careful, you can touch these warts to the side of your grinding wheel (I use a silicon carbide wheel in my bench grinder) to whittle it down and avoid grinding into the tungsten diameter. Then, you can polish the tungsten (end-to-end) with some...

Hi Everyone, being a brand new TIG welder with zero TIG experience, this is my first technical post after introducing myself. Being new, I regularly dip the tungsten, or touch it with the filler rod (believe me, I really try not to :shock: ). Anyway, I noticed that there appears to be some residue o...

Thanks for the welcome.

I'm currently still playing with mild steel, but will certainly take your advice regarding the large cups to heart when I start with the titanium, cj737.

Off to the TIG welding forum for more reading, and my first questions

Hello everyone, Nice to be here. I'm a civil engineer by trade, but like to get my hands dirty during weekends. I make knives as a hobby (been at it for the last 10+ years...), and convinced myself that I have a need to weld titanium and martensitic stainless steel as part of that vice. I therefore ...