Watched an old timer in Kentucky change how I do forge welding

I was at a hammer-in down near Bowling Green about 8 years ago. There was this guy probably 70 years old making damascus billets look easy. He wasn't using flux at all, just clean steel and careful heat control. I had always dumped borax on everything like my granddad taught me. He let me watch him weld three billets in a row without a single cold shut. I went home and tried his method on some 1095 and 15n20 I had. Took me a good 10 tries to get it right without flux. Anyone else ditch the borax and learn to read the heat better?

2 comments

2 Comments

uma_baker8814d ago

That old timer not using flux" got me thinking. I wonder if part of what he was doing was just having really good steel prep from the get go. People get so caught up in the flux part they forget a clean mill scale free surface is half the battle. I tried his method and the first few times I had issues cause I was still rushing the soak time. You gotta let that heat really sink in even without borax to help it flow.

david_hayes14d ago

Wait, are you saying the old timer was welding without flux at all or just not using borax? I hear what you're saying about clean steel and soaking the heat, but flux is still doing an important job even if it's not borax, it keeps oxygen off the weld zone. That guy probably had his own mix or just knew a way to keep the scale from forming, not necessarily no flux at all.