This work was motivated by the endeavour to experimentally determine the influence of crack position on the fatigue life of weldments. Plates were cut from a pipe of X52 pipeline steel – 830 mm in diameter and 10 mm in wall thickness – and their contact edges were then prepared for single-bevel butt welds. The plates were then welded by manual arc welding, and separate specimens – 10 mm in width and 5 mm in thickness – were cut from the weldment perpendicularly to the weld bead. The electro-spark method was then used to produce blunt crack discontinuities for the initiation of fatigue cracks. The cracked weldment specimens then underwent cyclic loading at reference force level F_max = 5.5 kN and stress asymmetry ratio R = F_min/F_max = 0.1. The test results made it possible to quantify the effects of the size and position of crack-like discontinuities on weld fatigue life.