Can you weld HSS without drawing the temper?

Yes

Bob Hackett(Mainely,Bob)

>Even when brought to red heat and cooled it only loses a couple of points of hardness.If welding be sure to pre and post heat to avoid cracking.Brazing is prefered to fix HSS to mild steel,think of all those carbide and HSS bits you may have seen used by machinists.

I`ve made quite afew turning tools from old HSS planer blades.They are as good or better than the store bought one piece items.

Mainely,Bob

Re: Yes

ThomD

>The arc is 13000 degrees, and more to the point, the welding puddle is like 2000/white hot. Not a good thing for your metal. If it's an air hardening HSS loosing temper/hardness is not your problem but other things may well happen to make a joint a little suspect.

As Bob points out the size of the object being welded/brazed is pretty critical so welding tiny bits won't work, while welding something to the non-working end might work OK. Guys who build knives seeem to prefer brazing the hilts since even welding in the grip can cause serious problems. They scarf the materials to be joined and braze them. High temp braze.

Not sure what yo are trying to do, but you can get a hardened surface welded to somethig by just welding on some hard surfaceing a metal that is like an HSS after it is deposited.

The do make forge welded Japanese tools with HSS blades, so it is certainly possible. And even if you drew the temper, you could heat treat it if need be.

I just finished doing something in the hardening of O1 that one isn't supposed to be able to do. Since a goodly chunk of HSS is just a few bucks, try whatever you want to and see if it works out or not. Stuff won't work because of specific conditions. When you run off to do something atypical, sometimes it works just fine because you aren't doing the stuff contemplated in the rule book. Unless there is a chance of something dangerous happening, just give it a try.