[nelson]

I bought some A-2 1/16 rod to try something. I'll get some 1018 low carbon 1/8 flat stock and weld a bead or 2 of the A-2 on the edge. I'm curious about those Japanese knives they made with high carbon and low carbon steels to hold an edge...and be tough as well.
those ancient Japanese didn't have A-2 or McMaster Carr back then so I guess this is a good experiment. I don't know what the A-2 will do as filler.
I'll let you know.

[Diesel]

The problem with your experiment, is that you will still end up with soft steel. The steel still needs to be heated to austenitic temp and quenched followed by a temper. Your better off getting a bar of A-2, if that's the steel you want, and shaping it accordingly followed by a heat treat. I don't know, but do not believe you have the ability or knowledge to layer steel. Not knocking you in any way. But the process of making laminated steel is best left to the pros.

[nelson]

I worked with a guy who apprenticed with a blacksmith who did that laminating stuff. Pretty cool and I'm not going there. It's been a long time but I think you need mild killed steel strips and some kinda high carbon strips. Heat em both up , hammer them into one, cut in half, and repeat over and over. My neighbors would love that. You get like a tort cake with hard and soft layers, after hardening of course.
A2 is weird though. Full hard gets you 62Rc, temper at 400 gets you 60Rc, temper at 1000 gets you all the way down to 58Rc (not much lower). Temper above 1000 and forget it. I haven't seen the numbers but it probably goes soft. When I use it for cutters at work I temper at 1000 -just because - but looking at the numbers and realizing hardness and toughness is a tradeoff, I'm probably wasting time and "playing NASA" by tempering it at all.

No, if I can get the A2 to puddle up on the edge and build it up high enough, I can grind it and test it. The welding will harden it. Jody's spark test made me think of this. I sparked on a piece of P20 and it got file killer hard.

If the wind dies today I'll try it.

[entity-unknown]

The reason two different metals are used in tradition Japanese sword making is the outside steel is hard strong. The inside steel is softer. When the blade is ready to be forged they dip it in water and the inside steel causes it to bend back giving it that signature curve. The wrong temperature or wrong amount of either metal causes it to warp in the wrong direction.
But don't listen to me because that was a poor way of saying the science behind it all.

Here's the Discovery channel video I believe I saw about 8 years ago explaining the true science and art behind it all.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VE_4zHNcieM

[nelson]

Thanks e-u I'll definitely look at that when the wife is elsewhere. Yesterday, rain & wind. Today wind but jacked up the Ar and waited for still air.
So I brought a 1/16 strip of low-C home. I got 1/16 A2 for filler. I tried beading it on the edge first. Pretty bad. Tried that for a half hour. Then I did multiple tacks on each side then did fusion passes. I didn't manage the heat well and the wire wanted to ball up and did so several times.
After 2 hours of f-ING around it seems clamp it edge up with 40 amps, 1 second pulse was best. First time I used pulse for real so I had to get the rythm. When to lift, dab, etc.
I did a 6 inch length and started grinding. I used it to harvest some corn today. By the sparks I think an area was ground past the hard stuff but all in all it has possibilities. Now i have to put an edge on just the low carbon and compare it. I do lots of latex cutting machines at work and this may come in handy. I've just got to practice. I'm still on my first 80cf of Ar.
I only saw 1 YouTube video on welding a hard layer but that was stick.

[nelson]

Here's a pic or 2. The first is my meager attempt. Nice eh?
The second is the test section. After grinding I think i could see the layers but it was close.
OK I put them up backwards.