Stainless steel substrates were hardfaced with laser melted Colmonoy applying a continuous wire injection technique using a CO2 laser. The microstructures of single pass laser clad deposits were examined and related to workpiece traverse velocity at constant laser output. Particular attention was paid to the effect of dilution of the cladding alloy due to convectional mixing with the partially melted substrate material. The solidification microstructure of the rapidly cooled cladded layer consisted predominantly of nickel rich cellular dendrites and interdendritic lamellar eutectic borides.