I am trying to do a little work on an old Bantam bucket and there seems to be some different metal on the cutting edge of the bucket. About a foot back from the cutting edge there seems to be a thicker piece of metal than on the rest of the bucket 1 foot X 3 foot. And on that foot wide piece about three inches back from the cutting edge there seems to be another piece of metal built in to the foot wide piece, 3 inches X 36 Inches. That three inch wide strip could have been the original cutting edge. What I just wrote sounds kind of confusing but it is the best I can do without a picture. The question is what kind of metal is on the cutting edge of a bucket and what do you weld it with? I have been using 1/8 7018 out of the oven and it runs real nice but the metal on the bucket does not seem to like it. Any suggestions? And the bucket has been welded on before so who knows what anyone else could have put on for electrode or metal that has been replaced.
Preheat. If the cutting edge is hard or abrasion resistant steel, you need to preheat it.
Test the metal with a magnet. If not magnetic, it may be manganese. If so, you must use stainless wire / rod on that joint.
How hot do you preheat the area? Is 7018 an acceptable rod to use? Years ago someone put a cross hatch pattern of hard face on about 6 inches of that 1 foot X 3 foot piece on the cutting edge. I would assume they needed to preheat for that also?
The metal is magnetic so I am guessing that 7018 is an acceptable rod to use.
If it's some form of high carbon steel, it will require preheat, and possibly post heat if you're welding a joint in the steel. It's hard to know what grade or carbon content the metal has. You can run a file across an edge of the steel, if it's high carbon, it will resist being cut with a file. Without knowing the grade or carbon content, I'd say you would want to preheat at least to somewhere between 300 to 500 degrees. You could probably use a 7018 rod, but if the joint isn't going to be subject to tensile or shear loads, you may want to consider using stainless rods as stainless weld is more ductile.