Timo, have you ever tried to forge weld?
I was taught basic blacksmithing by a man who came out of his apprenticeship in 1947, in a NSW country town. He was one of the last traditionally trained smiths in Australia. He taught me to forge weld iron and mild steel.
At that time (1980) I was unable to find anybody in the greater Sydney area who could teach me to forge weld iron with high carbon steel or with nickel. This included the very few tech college teachers who were teaching blacksmithing at that time.
In the 19th century text books that I was using back then, mention was made that in most towns in England where there were several smiths, one smith was usually recognised as the welding specialist and he accepted welding jobs from the other smiths in his area.
Forge welding in coke or charcoal is not at all easy.
It took me about 12 months of trial and error to teach myself to weld iron + nickel + high carbon steel , in the forge. Subsequently I taught a number of other people.
The step from ordinary forge work to welding in the forge is a very big step, and the step from welding iron to welding materials with different weld temperatures is immense.
To weld meteoritic material in the forge is a step further again.
These days most people who can forge weld are using gas forges, and this welding is about as difficult as making a chocolate cake, but welding in a traditional forge is not something that is easy to do.
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