A study off riction welding of high speed steel(SKH 51) bar for blade side to carbon steel(STC 3)bar for shank side was carried out experimentally through tensile test, hardness test, microstructure, and acoustic emission (AE) test. So, this paper deals with optimizing the welding conditions and the real-time quality (strength) evaluation of friction weleded joints by acoustic emission technique. The results obtained are summarized as follows: (1) For friction welded joints of SKH 51to STC 3 steel bars, the total upset (U) increases linearly with an increase of heating time (t sub(1)). (2) The determined optimum welding conditions are heating time (t sub(1)) 7-9 sec, upsetting time (t sub(2)) 5 sec, heating pressure(P sub(1)) 12 kg sub(f)mm supper(2), upsetting pressure (P sub(2)) 15 kg sub(f) mm supper(2) and rotating speed (n) 2, 000 rpm, resulting in a computed relationship between the tensile strength of the joint .sigma. (kg sub(f) mm supper(2)) and the heating time t sub(1) (sec) as the following. sigma.=2.39t sub(1)