Stick Welding 101: A Beginner’s Guide 

Here’s something you won’t hear in a lot of beginner welding content: stick welding is older than your grandfather’s tractor, and it still has no real competition for certain jobs.

It’s not the flashiest process. It’s not the easiest to learn. The beads won’t win any beauty contests right out of the gate. But stick — properly called Shielded Metal Arc Welding, or SMAW — is the process that welded the world together for most of the 20th century, and for good reason. It’s portable. It’s tough. It works on rusty, dirty, painted, and otherwise ornery metal that would laugh at MIG or TIG. And for farmers, ranchers, and anyone who does repair work in the field, that’s not a minor advantage — that’s the whole ball game.

This guide is for people who are new to stick welding, or new to welding altogether and considering whether stick is the right place to start. We’ll cover how it works, what the learning curve actually looks like, how to set up, and what to buy.

Pro Tip: If you do most of your welding outdoors, on old farm equipment, or anywhere you can’t guarantee clean metal and calm air, read this entire guide before you assume MIG is your first purchase. Stick might be exactly what you need.

What Stick Welding Actually Is

Stick welding uses a consumable electrode — a metal rod coated in flux — to create the arc and deposit weld metal. The flux coating does something clever: as it burns during welding, it creates its own shielding gas and a layer of slag that protects the weld pool from atmospheric contamination.

That’s the key difference from MIG and TIG. With MIG and TIG, you need an external shielding gas supply — a cylinder of argon, or argon/CO2 mix — to protect the weld. With stick, the protection comes from the electrode itself. No bottle, no regulator, no gas line. Just the machine and the rod.

The result is a process that’s as simple as welding gets at the equipment level, and as demanding as it gets at the skill level. You’re holding a rod that gets shorter as you weld, maintaining arc length by feel, reading the puddle through a shade 10 or 11 lens, and controlling the bead by hand — no automatic wire feed to lean on.

It’s a real skill. And once you have it, it doesn’t leave you.

Fun Fact: Stick welding was developed in the early 1900s and became the dominant welding process by World War II. It’s estimated that SMAW was used to build the ships, tanks, and infrastructure that won the war. Not bad for a process that’s essentially a metal stick and an electric arc.

The Learning Curve — Honest Assessment

Let’s not sugarcoat it: stick welding has a learning curve. Not an impossible one, but a real one.

The challenge is arc length. With MIG, the wire feeds automatically and the contact tip maintains a consistent distance from the work. With stick, you’re holding the electrode and feeding it toward the work as it burns down. Too far away and the arc breaks. Too close and you stub the rod into the puddle and stick it to the base metal. Finding and holding that sweet spot — typically 1/16″ to 1/8″ for most rods — while also moving smoothly along a joint is what takes time.

The other challenge is slag. The flux coating burns off and creates a protective slag layer on top of the weld. That slag has to be chipped and brushed off after each pass. On your first few tries, you’ll occasionally trap slag in the weld — a defect called slag inclusion. Learning to manipulate the puddle properly to keep slag out of the bead is one of the foundational stick skills.

Here’s a realistic timeline with consistent practice — a few hours a week:

• Sessions 1–3: Striking an arc reliably, basic arc length control, running a flat bead without getting stuck
• Sessions 4–8: Bead quality improving, slag inclusions decreasing, more consistent travel speed
• Month 2–3: Comfortable with flat and horizontal positions, able to weld basic joints (butt, lap, T-joint)
• Month 3–6: Comfortable with multiple electrode types, starting vertical and overhead positions, welding thicker sections

Most people stick with flat and horizontal welding for most repair work and that’s completely fine. Vertical and overhead are advanced skills. Don’t rush them.

Stick Welding Machine Setup

Setting up a stick welder is about as simple as it gets in welding. Here’s what you’re working with:

1. Connect your work clamp (ground clamp) to your workpiece or welding table. The work clamp completes the circuit. It needs good metal-to-metal contact — not paint, not rust scale if you can help it.

2. Install your electrode in the stinger (electrode holder). Most stingers have a spring-loaded jaw. Slide the bare end of the rod into the jaw at an angle — usually around 45–90 degrees from the stinger body, depending on the holder design.

3. Set your amperage. Start with the manufacturer’s recommendation on the rod packaging, then adjust based on your results. Too hot and the puddle spreads wide and undercuts the edges. Too cold and the bead piles up without fusing properly.

4. Strike the arc. There are two methods: the scratch start (drag the rod tip across the metal like a match, then pull back to arc length) and the tap start (lightly tap the metal and immediately pull up). Scratch start is easier for beginners. Practice on scrap first.

That’s it. No gas flow to set, no wire tension to adjust, no spool to load. Plug in, clamp on, rod in, weld.

Stick Welding Electrodes: What the Numbers Mean

Stick electrodes have a classification system that looks cryptic until you understand the logic. E6013 is a common beginner rod — here’s what that means:

• E — Electrode (it’s a welding electrode, not a cutting rod or other type)
• 60 — 60,000 PSI minimum tensile strength of the deposited weld metal
• 1 — Can be used in all positions (flat, horizontal, vertical, overhead)
• 3 — The flux coating type and recommended current (AC or DC)

Here are the four rods most beginners will work with:

For farm and repair work, start with a box of E6013 for practice and clean steel, and a box of E6011 for real-world repair on older equipment. Those two rods will cover 90% of what you need.

Pro Tip: E7018 rods are low-hydrogen and must be stored in a dry environment — ideally a rod oven — or they absorb moisture from the air and become prone to porosity. If you’re not running them regularly, buy smaller packs and keep them sealed. For farm repair work, E6011 is more practical because storage is less finicky.

Amperage Settings: The Quick-Start Guide

There’s a general rule of thumb for stick welding amperage: 1 amp per thousandth of an inch of electrode diameter. A 1/8″ (0.125″) rod runs around 90–130 amps. A 3/32″ rod runs around 70–100 amps. The rod packaging always has a recommended range — start in the middle and adjust.

Signs your amperage is too low: the arc sputters and keeps going out, the bead piles up and doesn’t penetrate, the slag is hard to remove.

Signs your amperage is too high: the puddle spreads out excessively, you get undercut along the edges of the bead, the metal feels too fluid and hard to control.

When in doubt, run a test bead on scrap at your starting setting, look at the result, and adjust. Your eyes will teach you faster than any chart.

What to Buy: Starter Equipment for Stick Welding

Here’s what you need to start stick welding from scratch:

Stick Welder — An inverter-based stick welder in the 160–200 amp range covers most farm and home shop work. Look for one that runs on both 110V and 220V (dual voltage), so you’re not locked out of job sites or outbuildings with only one type of outlet. The Lincoln Electric 225 AC and Hobart Stickmate series are both proven farm machines. We have a dedicated guide linked below.

Electrodes — Start with E6013 in 3/32″ and 1/8″ diameters, and a box of E6011 in 1/8″. That’s your toolkit for learning and repair work.

Welding Helmet — Auto-darkening, shade 10–11 for stick. You don’t need a top-tier helmet to start, but don’t go bottom of the barrel either. A mid-range auto-darkening helmet in the $60–$150 range is the right starting zone.

Welding Gloves — Leather gauntlet-style gloves. Stick runs hotter than MIG, so don’t use MIG-specific gloves — they’re too thin. You want proper stick/MIG gauntlet gloves with good heat protection.

Chipping Hammer — For removing slag. Usually included with a new machine, but if not, they’re a few dollars at any welding supply.

Wire Brush — For cleaning slag residue after chipping. A dedicated steel wire brush, not a paint brush.

Angle Grinder — For cleaning metal before welding and grinding welds afterward. A 4.5″ grinder with flap discs and grinding discs is essential.

Fun Fact: The chipping hammer is one of the oldest tools in a welder’s kit — it’s been standard equipment since the earliest days of stick welding. The satisfying crack of slag coming off a clean bead is a small reward that never really gets old.

Who Stick Welding Is Right For

Stick isn’t the process for everyone, but it’s the right process for a specific kind of welding life:

• You work on farms, ranches, or rural properties where your jobs aren’t in a clean, controlled shop
• A lot of your welding is repair work — broken implements, cracked frames, worn hitches, old equipment
• You need to weld outdoors or in windy conditions where shielding gas would blow away
• The metal you’re working with is dirty, rusty, or painted and you don’t always have time or equipment to prep perfectly
• You want the most portable setup possible — just a machine, some rods, and an extension cord
• You’re budget-conscious — stick equipment is typically cheaper to buy and operate than MIG

If most of that list describes you, stick welding isn’t a compromise — it’s the right tool for your work.

The Bottom Line

Stick welding is older technology, not outdated technology. There’s a difference. The processes that replaced it in clean shop environments — MIG, TIG, wire processes — can’t touch stick where stick excels: the field, the wind, the rust, the old iron.

The learning curve is real. Your first rods will be ugly. You’ll stub the electrode, you’ll stick it to the metal, you’ll chip slag and find porosity and wonder what you did wrong. That’s the process working as designed. Keep practicing.

The welders who put the most time on a stick machine tend to be some of the most capable all-around welders around. The process develops arc awareness and puddle control that transfers directly to every other process you’ll ever touch.

Start with E6013. Learn to read the puddle. Chip your slag and look at your bead. Adjust and run another one.

NEXT STEP: Ready to pick a machine? Read our guide to the best stick welders for farm use — tested picks at every budget, with straight talk about what holds up in the real world.