Welding/brazing old files to art piece. 1

[berkshire]

I have gotten involved with an art project,
A local art center is making a set of decorative gates for one of its studio areas.
Since I am now retired, I got hornswoggled into working with the artist welding this thing up ( He holds it and I weld it).
This is one of these throw a pile of junk at a wall and see what sticks operations.
So far I have tig and MiG welded most of this together with ER702-2 filler. The material varies wildly from blacksmiths rejects to old automobile parts.

The artist threw a curve ball at me today, he wanted me to weld on some small forged snakes. When I looked at them they were made from old horseshoe rasps. Now I do not know what they are, I am guessing they are 1050 steel or possibly even higher carbon.
My question is how can I weld these on without them cracking off.
Preheat and use a nickel rod, or just use Everdur silicon bronze. and what kind of post heat if any.
B.E.
They are about a 1/4" thick.

B.E.

 

[Ron]

Anneal, then weld or braze.

 

[MintJulep]

If artist guy has shaped them into snakes it seems likely that they are already annealed.

 

[metengr]

Annealing is not going to help. Run a spark test and see how that compares with the other junk steel you have been welding. If sparking is similar, weld conventionally. If it is high carbon, I would use Ni-rod 55.

 

[berkshire]

Thanks Metenqr,
When you run a spark test on this stuff it is a very bright radial explosive spark. There is no doubt that it is very high carbon steel. I will use nickel rod to put these on. I guess if I put a gas torch on before and after the weld, and do a slow cool down, I can avoid under bead cracking.
B.E.