Recently, low alloy steel types have been widely utilized in the manufacture of many important products, which may be damaged during service and require repair by welding. Shielded metal arc welding of 6 mm thick AISI 5155 low alloy steel plates with different electrodes was employed to examine and compare the microstructure and mechanical properties of the welds. The results showed diverse microstructures over the weld metals. The maximum hardness values across the welds were in the CGHAZ, where the structure contained ferrite and pearlite coarser than that of the base metal. The finest structure was in the inter-critical HAZ, in which the minimum hardness was; where partial spheroidization of pearlite occurred. The average weld metal hardness value, for all welds, was lower than that of the base metal (~465 HV). The highest hardness value was (~337 HV) for the weld produced using the OK48.00 electrode, whilst the maximum tensile strength was (938 MPa) for the weld due to the use of the OK76.18 electrode. The low cost electrode (OK46.00) and the expensive one (OK92.18) gave relatively lower mechanical properties, whereas the optimum properties were achieved as a result of using iron powder low hydrogen covering electrodes (OK48.00 and OK76.18).