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Question about forge welding my first billet last week, and the borax trick that finally worked
Last Tuesday I finally tried forge welding a small billet in my coal forge out in the garage, and it went bad the first two tries. The steel just would not stick together no matter how hot I got it, and I kept pulling it out looking like a burned up mess. A guy named Walt at the local blacksmith meetup in Springfield told me to stop guessing the temp by color and actually watch for that wet shiny look, then flux with plain borax laundry booster instead of the fancy stuff I paid $22 for. I sprinkled the borax on, let it melt and bubble, and on the third try the layers fused into one solid chunk when I tapped it with my hammer. The whole thing took about 40 minutes of reheating and I probably burned half a bag of coal doing it. I still do not trust my heat reading by eye, so I ordered a cheap magnet to test the critical temp. Curious what flux you all use, and do you swear by a magnet test or just go off the color?
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the_thea22d ago
Burned through half a coal bag on my first weld too, felt real dumb.
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