Forge Welding ?

[Ron Hicks]

I guess I got lucky
I Forge Welded the 3/16 X 3/4 to the necked down 1/4 thick.
I upset the 3/16 to get it about the same thickness and scarfed both made the scarfs rounded.
I heated just the ends on both side by side in a clean coal fire and easy on the blower. Just took my time and eased up to the heat.

I took both to the anvil on the far edge rested the ladle part scarf up on the edge & the handle on near edge and rocked it down on the other.

I practiced a little before I tried it when hot and think the trick is how you let go of the tongs. I let go of the bottom rein and lifted the tongs off.
Any how it worked and welded up nice ,I ground it and looked like one piece.

I think heating to fast has been my problem with Forge Welding.
Ill keep at it
Think Im Learnin
Thanks
Ron

[Nolano]

Heating to fast is an excellent way to mess up a weld, I've found. I keep the air blast low to keep the scale down. Good work, I probably couldn't have done what you described.

[Ian]

Nolano makes a fair point, fire welding is a lot of waiting then a sudden mad ten seconds
I was taught (by Glenn Moon) that you should let the pieces really soak in a good clean, non oxidising fire. Then very slowly bring the heat up. There's absolutely no need to have the pieces coming out of the fire like a sparkler, and in fact I saw him fire weld loads of things (including a giant piece of pattern welding about a foot long by 10" by 2" that ended up 2" by 2" by three feet!) without there ever being a single spark from the fire. A long slowly building soak means you can watch the steel get to the wash point (that melted butter look), hold it there longer without burning it, and in some cases you can actually get the steel to weld at a much lower temp than you'd expect.
All I have to do is put into practice what he showed me