Learning how to forge weld

Lost Arts Forge is the Las Cruces, N.M.-area refuge of Jose “Pep” Gomez, a jack-of-all-trades savant living in the shadow of Tortugas Mountain.

A former Lockheed employee who worked on secret squirrel stuff at the nearby White Sands Missile Range, he now teaches welding at Dona Ana Community College, travels the country doing blacksmithing demonstrations, and runs his own business. In his shop he forges blades; collects, repairs, and utilizes old machinery; and takes on all the tough fabrication and repair jobs for locals that no one else in the area can manage.

I’m a geek about metal and love the idea of heating and beating steel into submission. A fire, an anvil, and a big hammer sound like heaven. Before my arm surgeries, heaven felt so far away.

But recently I was lucky enough to visit Pep’s shop for some lessons in forge welding.

Enter the Power Hammer

Pep fired up all of his power hammers and demonstrated their use. Each means something different to him, and each serves a purpose. His entire shop is filled with wonderful, vintage, oddball, and awesome American-made tools and machines. Pep is very proud that they all work. The Gorton pantograph, Burgmaster turret drill, and a vintage ironworker caught my eye, just to name a few.

While we talked about the shop and work philosophy, Pep put together a few bars of steel ready to be forged. The stacks included alternated alloys, like a high-nickel and hard high-carbon steel. Each bar was light or dark with unique properties to match. They also had a length of half-inch bar welded to them for handling. He keeps everything about 1 ½ in. wide, just as a standard, so as the forging process continues, he knows the width he needs to achieve to add one hammered piece to the next stack. He directed me to grab a pair of tongs to pick up a bar to warm up in the forge.

Pep explained to me that the stove temperature is kept between 2,250 and 2,350 degrees. That precludes the need for flux as, at those temps, a barrier is created that protects the hot metal from atmospheric contamination.

While my bar was getting acclimated to hell, I got acclimated to the hammer. It is a completely restored Chambersburg 2CH, a 200-lb., self-contained unit. This particular version is pretty rare. It was built shorter than usual to stand in the low ceilings of a naval ship’s blacksmith shop. This hammer was delivered to Kaiser Steel on Sept. 14, 1948. I put my foot on the pedal and slowly applied pressure to get a feel for how the reciprocating ram moved.

When it came time to do the business, Pep instructed me to hammer the flat side of the stack first. This pushes out any air or contaminants that might be trapped between the layers inside. Then, after a quick reheat, I placed the bar on the anvil flipped 90 degrees from the first hit.

My First Forge Weld

The heat is important to keep the metal composition in the right state. If the metal is too hot, it starts to stretch and fall apart. Too cool, and the structure shifts and science punches back with brittleness and other unwanted properties.

Josh Welton forge welding at Lost Arts Forge near Las Cruces, N.M. Images: Josh Welton

After a few cycles, I flattened the curves and straightened the edges and came out with a pretty nice piece of forge-welded steel. Once it cooled, Pep cut the end off with a ceramic disc. The main portion will be used as a component in one of his blades. He polished and etched the cut end to show me the pattern I created and to give me a souvenir.

As these components add up and are welded onto each other, a kaleidoscope effect occurs, giving the steel an incredible look. The different metals offer both unique wear properties and a slick design.

I had a blast thumping hot steel with a power hammer for the first time, but the quality results fall squarely on having an experienced blacksmith like Mr. Gomez show me the game.

Now I need a power hammer.

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