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I Forge Iron

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Speaking of flux- several folks have been doing good forge welds with NO FLUX, just the proper welding temp. I also watched a youtube vid where the man did all his forge welding [for the past several years] just spraying the material with WD40 before the initial heat, then using nothing from then on. These folks are mostly using gas forges- don't know if any are using coal or not. Because of the wear and tear of forge linings I am going to try my next Damascus billet with no flux or wd40 or anything. I have a lot of respect for the makers who have said they do this and want to try it. Sure be nice not to have to reline my forge after the flux eats the guts out :) You may want to give it a try, too.
Dave

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Dave , glad you have enjoyed, the more we have doing this the merrier.
I am using gas exclusively for now, want to do charcoal in the summers eventually.
I have seen the no flux guys and am amazed they can do it in gas. I have done it in high carbon, but have always needed its help with mild steel. I have had good luck doing what they call a dry weld by sealing it all up with a TIG but like to avoid the cost when I can.
My favorite flux is black magic, it is stunning. Even better than iron mountain. I want to replicate black magic without the freight costs I would have up here. It does still eat brick but with a little lining they last long enough for me.
Good luck tomorrow with the coins, let me know if I can help at all.

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I always feel I have to caviat anything I say with "I'm self taught and new to blacksmithing and only working with the lighter weight steels" so you may want to consider that when you're deciding on whether to pay heed to anything I say...

 

So are people doing no-flux forge welds with no sparking of the metal at all?

 

I forge weld without flux and I watch for different types of sparks depending on how far I am through the weld. When I'm scarf welding two pieces together, for the first heat where I'm going tack the two pieces together, I wait until I see sparks that burst, then count to 6. I find that trying to weld when I've seen sparks that look like grinding sparks isn't hot enough, the sparks when they burst need to have that starry snowflake shape.

 

In later welding heats when I'm just working the weld in I don't wait for those bursting sparks, I just wait for the regular looking sparks and let the metal "simmer" in fire for about 8 seconds before working on the weld. When I make animal head fire pokers to keep the overall weight of the poker down I make the head and neck of the animal from 12mm round bar and use 10mm for the main length of the bar. Forge welding the 12mm to 10mm is the first thing I do in the process. Again, I'm a newbie so it takes me 4-5 heats before I'm happy with the results. Each pic (except the first) was taken after working on the weld at a welding heat. The last pic shows the finished weld with a light bit of filing to remove any hammer marks and to make the roundness of the weld perfectly match the roundness of the parent bars.

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Here's a video of me welding chain without flux. The material is just plain mild steel. I can do the same thing to 1045 steel, maybe a little higher carbon content.
But above that it just starts to fall apart (melting point getting lower and too close to the temperature you can weld without flux). This is when I would use a flux to

protect the steel from losing (much) carbon and preventing awful structures that have to be dealt with with certain heat treatments.

Any type of fire weld can be done without flux, given it's anything like wrought iron, mild steel, or not too high plain carbon steel, with no weird or "exotic" alloying elements.

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