good call... I would have done the same and polished out the cartouche... -
the weld line tells a story ... with a sharply beveled scarf on both sides.. this is abit harder weld to make... i'm positive that there was more than one smith working on this... one smith pull the tip out and places the bottom scarf on the anvil and the master would pull the hilt piece out and line up the weld and set it.. (you have such a very short time to line up the weld.... I try to get things lined up and set in under 3 sec). then both would work the weld in time...... tap ...Bang.. tap .... Bang... etc
-- experience and talent to weld it that nicely
yesterday i forgewelded a pair of broken wrought iron tongs...the handle had snapped.. much different material ... but still it gets interesting when your trying to get two parts of the handle to line up ....when they are at a white welding heat... then grab a hammer to set it...
if i were to guess... wootz would probably weld at a brite orange to very low yellow heat..... not sure what you'd use for flux... borax gets nice and bubbly at a brite yellow heat ( the weld temp for lotsa tool steels and too high for wootz)...
-- hmm... wonder what they used for flux ?
Greg
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