Forge welding question

[Frozen Bear Trading]

Would any one care to talk about forge welding or have experience?

I'm interested because I like being at my forge and anvil

I'm confused about forge welding.

Why do some people use flux?

Do you have to use flux for higher carbon steel?

Reading that forge welding had been around a long time and seeing other videos has made me want to try to forge weld a old knife I made to short that is just sitting in a scrap pile.

 

[GoldSkula]

My understanding is that flux helps but it isn't mandatory.

 

[Frozen Bear Trading]

My understanding is that flux helps but it isn't mandatory.

I have been seeing people use sand and borax for flux and I think it's used to keep the adjoining ends cleaner so better contact is Made

I was really hoping to find someone that has done it

 

[GoldSkula]

I was really hoping to find someone that has done it

Do you mean forge welding in general or forge welding without flux?

 

[Frozen Bear Trading]

Do you mean forge welding in general or forge welding without flux?

In general. I wanted some tips cause I may take tomorrow off and play at the forge all day long

 

[GoldSkula]

I'm personally very novice at forge welding so I will give you the only tip I can give with 100% confidence. Don't leave your fire unatended if you don't know what you're doing while you go pick up new gloves from your shop.
https://imgur.com/S1r44xo

 

[S.Alexander]

Forge welding with flux (ie borax) ensures that no oxygen gets into your welds. This prevents scale or oxidization and allows the steels to weld cleanly.

Make sure your surfaces are flat and ground clean. Tack weld them together, heat them up to dull orange in the forge then take it out. Sprinkle borax on the edges, then put it back into your forge. Bring it up to welding temp then hammer it all together.

That is very simplified. Check out videos on YouTube for more details, or tutorials on the site here .

 

[Lieblad]

Along with keeping oxygen off the weld area. Molten borax is very agressive at ”digging thru” any surface contaminate to float it away. The hot steel underneath the flux is very clean and easily joined.

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

A search with the Custom Search Engine in the stickys will get you hundreds of threads on forge welding.