Before metal surfaces can be welded, it is necessary to remove the contamination (oxide) layer on the surface and avoid recontamination of the clean surface by its environment prior to the welding operation. Mechanical abrasion is one way of removing the surface oxide layer used in such processes as friction-welding, roll-bonding, and diffusion-bonding. It would be desirable to have a technique for welding at low temperatures (0.1 to0.4 Tm), with non-distorting, zero-shear type of leading. This paper describes such a process. In a uhv environment (to delay recontamination to very long times), two halves of a tensile specimen are cleaned by argon-ion bombardment, compressed at about 0.8–0.9 yield strength at 0.1 to0.4 Tm, and held at temperature for finite times. The welded specimen is then tensile-tested in the uhv system to evaluate the process. The variables studied are temperature, time, loading, and the need for ion cleaning on various metals. Successful welds were produced in OFHC copper, Ti, and Be.