Wanzer

I recently got interested in blacksmithing as a hobby. I built a ground forge out of standard red clay bricks. I drilled some holes in black pipe and used a hairdryer for the air supply. And for fuel have been using homemade charcoal. It took alot of trial and error to get it working. The first 3 or 4 sessions were just reshaping the forge and trying to figure out the qualities of the fire and metal. I think my main problem was I was going for the jetflame effect and giving it way to much air. My second problem was that it was too shallow. Eventually I was able to make a few fire pokers, a fire rake, and a few random things. Now I really want to successfully forge weld somthing and its just not happening. I don't have any flux, but I heard it was still possible to do without it. I have even heated up the metal to a bright buttery yellow. Practically dripping. And it still wont make a solid connection. It could be because I have only tried using flattened rebar, which I heard is an inconsistent metal to blacksmith with. Any types or techniques on how to forge weld?