[Lee O'Hagan]

At work today i picked up one of those diamond cutting disc's,
On the label it stated laser welded,
IE,the last 1/2" of material is steel but diamond impregnated then welded to the main disc body,
Is laser welding commonplace now in engineering,
So you guys can guess where i'm going with this,
Anyone useing this in blade manufacture?
I'd heard of laser cutting and plasma cutter's but hadnt heard anything on laser welding,
Definately intriqued
Anyone ?

[Zach Stambaugh]

laser would seem to localize heat well, but i think it would only be suitable for very thin metals. i do not think that there would be adequate penetration of the weld puddle. also, it would probably require too much precision for freehand welding., but that is just a guess on my part. i know that industrial plastics welding is done with lasers, but i have not heard of welding metals with lazers.

[Lee O'Hagan]

Hi Zach,
Cheers,
after seeing it on the label of the cutting disc,and these discs stand up to some harsh punishment,i'd been thinking about steel blades,ie inner core of soft,outer of harder steel,then the argument of the weld staying stable through a heat treat,
That brought on the thought of a cryo treat instead,straight after that the thought that cryo seems to benifit blades that are'nt heat treated so well,
Dont know enough about the process to know if a cryo treat would work on it's own outright,
but from what you've said it sounds like a costly route unless a maker is geared up to order a fair number of blanks,
may well be a case of if the old ways are'nt broke dont try to fix em,

[Don Halter]

Laser welding is usually on some sort of fully automated machine. Joining dissimilar metals and pipes and such. A laser head is rotated around the seam, welding as it goes. You can adjust the laser output and head speed to get whatever penetration you need, but it was generally used on thin material. This is fusion welding, not fill welding. Of course, I haven't kept up with it so they probably have filler metal systems and such integrated into the systems by now for a more broad application.

[Lee O'Hagan]

Hi Don,
Thanks for the info,
I'm betting fully automated machine means big outlay figures,
Seems the more you chaps are saying it's not worth the time and investment,
Bit off topic but,
It seem's a shame as in some areas of work the laser has made leaps and bounds,been dreaming of some form of laser portable cutter to revolutionise the construction industry for years,to replace the disc cutters and grinders which have been common for quite some time,licence permitting,

[Jörg W.]

Hi!

I once saw a page where a german sword maker showed his way to produce a blade by laser cut and heat treating it afterward. I couldnt find it anymore, its 2 years ago. But there is another one (maybe same maker).
http://www.dietraumschmiede.de/neu/neu.htm

There is an interesting article about "Federn" (engl. "feathers") at about half of the page below 'Weltneuheit' (in white letters). These are supposed to be historic training sword. That sound interesting and ill try to get more information about it. Next to one picture it says:

"Das Bild zeigt die einzelnen Herstellungsschritte der Klingen. Von unten nach oben:

- Flachmaterial mit 60 x 4 mm
- Lasergeschnittener Rohling
- Roh ausgeschmiedeter Rohling
- Gehärtete und teilpolierte Klinge
- Fertig montierte "Feder" mit verzinnten Griffteilen und Holzgriff mit Lederwicklung. "

In English (sorry for rather bad translation):

"The picture shows the single steps of manufacture of the blades. From bottom to top:

- flat material with 60 x 4 mm
- laser cut raw piece
- raw forged piece
- heat treated and partly polished blade
- finished mounted "feather" with grip parts of tin and wooden grip covered with leather."

Jörg

[Lee O'Hagan]

Hi Jorg,
Thanks for the link and info,
The blade blanks being cut by laser info is a bit more freely available,admiral steel in the US and a couple of places around the UK do it,
But that being said a very good link,damn my lack of knowledge on German,
If i'm looking at the right picture i think your mentioning a Fechtbuch sword,a good pic and description at ,
www.arms-n-armor.com/
Also some fine looking viking sword pics,
Would there be an english link page,
Thanks for the translation too,
nice one