[ziddoap]

Sure, I mean I read both the wikipedia pages so I've understood that. And I'm not trying to be obtuse here, honestly, but that still doesn't really help me understand why "cold welding, despite the name, _is not welding_".

Your description, and wiki's, both sound like it is welding.

And after spending an embarrassing amount of time last night going down a welding rabbit hole, I have not seen anyone else claim that "cold welding is not welding". I'm pretty sure it is.

[potato3732842]

Cold welding is basically galling like you get with stainless on stainless under high pressure. Uniformity and consistency is hard to achieve so besides accidentally sticking things that shouldn't be stuck and the lightest duty applications the usefulness is limited.