Friction surfacing was attempted with a stainless steel, aluminium and brass consumables on a mild-steel substrate in the open air and in flowing nitrogen. Stainless steel formed a strongly-bonded thick layer but friction surfacing with both aluminium and brass was not possible. Both brass and aluminium consumables failed to form a heated layer in contact with the mild steel, high thermal conductivity of either metal being the probable cause of failure to perform friction surfacing. Nitrogen ventilation caused cooling of the heated layer between the stainless steel and the mild-steel substrate and lowered the quality of the coating. Multi-layer surfacing by stainless steel consumables was successful, with at least three strongly-bonded layers possible, provided that the surfaces are free of oily contaminants.