Hi
i was wondering if any of you guys could give me some tips on forge welding.
any tips would be greatly appreciated.

thanks

keep up the good threads.

Hi, I've been reading and trying to forge weld with no success. Clean Iron, not much oxygen as they say, Flux, and molten metal... still no success. Would love to hear what there is to say. It's not you. It's tricky is my guess.

One of the key things in forge welding is DO NOT HIT IT HARD on the first heat. Too hard and you blow the molten metal out of the joint. Just enough flux to wet the joint, neutral fire, proper joint prep. check to see if the 2 part stick together in the fire...if they don't stick there they won't stick out of the fire.
Make leave or nails and a couple of forge welds each time you light the forge. Leaves/nails for hammer control as well as warm up excercise and forge welds for practice.

There has been alot of entries about forge welding written on this site and they all say what is written above use the search engine if you wish to see a lot more....

In the blueprints are some links to texts with highly detailed instruction. I can only fagot weld when the pile is restrained, so I have a lot of learning still

I Forge Iron - LB0008.0001 Reference Material
I Forge Iron - LB0008 Reference material

Phil

Hey, just found some of these replies. Thanks. I'll try preparing the steel more, and less flux and not hitting so hard. I know the metal was clean so I'll keep going. thanks for the resource info also.

it reall is a tap as opposed to a hit ....try pressing it in the vice

Make sure you heat the metal slowly so it is the same temperature all the way through.

you sort of 'push' with the hammer rather than a 'tap' kind of blow,. hope this makes a bit of sense.....

A firm rather than sharp blow is what is needed. At least one demonstator welds billets using a hammer handle rather than a hammer to demonstrate this.

As Rich pointed out if it won't stick in the fire it won't stick outside of it. Are you sure you are getting the fire / steel hot enough?

is there anyone in your area that can show you ? it really helps the first few times to see someone else forge weld before you try it yourself.. it is one of those things you need to see in person rather than video.. good luck

About the idea of molten steel, "get over it!" The steel is not molten. The high tech guys call this type of weld a solid state or a solid phase weld. The metal is solid. There is some molten stuff on the surface. It is molten scale, if no flux is used. It is a molten compound of scale and flux, if flux is used. It is not molten steel. If the steel were melting, you would have either a burnt steel situation, or you would have a steel puddle underneath your hearth.

The old time smiths said that the metal was "pasty" during the solid phase. During this phase, you have a relatively short time to get the metals to cohere.

Turley Forge and Blacksmithing School : The Granddaddy of Blacksmithing Schools

Some things that helped me learn to forge weld:

Deep clean charcoal fire , slow & low on the air
Just a touch of flux - flux ain't glue
Don't Rush the heat but tap it quickly when its ready
It's easier to weld 2 pieces of 1/2 X1/2 than 1/4 x 1/4
Do a minimum of 1 weld EVERY TIME you Light a fire ( or at least attempt one )

Jens

Edited November 14, 200916 yr by oakwoodforge

thanks hus i really appreciated i'm starting to get the hang of it now iv'e done a few successful welds already this was about a week after i made this thread thanks again

alec