There is a very eminent smith here in the UK who only uses silver (quartz? silica?) sand as flux. He takes the merest pinch and casts it atop his fire while heating the work to be welded. Watching him do this led me to the conclusion that, while he referred to this action as fluxing his work, he was in fact either fluxing his fire, or, more likely, simply performing a confidence enhancing ritual with no real effect.
As noted before, for the majority of welding flux is not really necessary, and in some cases can even be a hindrance. With correct fire management, even high carbon steel can be welded without flux.
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