Damascus/Forge Welding Woes

[ThomasPowers]

A couple hours working with someone who knows what they are doing can save you 6 months of trying it on your own. One of the problem with videos is that the cameras usually don't get the correct colours of high heat items; thus throwing you off if you are basing it on videos.  Just like reading can mislead you as well.  I've run into a lot of people who when they read "cherry red" think of Bing cherries and not the old fashioned pie cherries that are around 500 degF hotter in colour! Seeing it in person gets around that issue.

I will say that when I fired up my forge in 1981 I was pretty much on my own working from "The Modern Blacksmith".   I really appreciated learning my mistakes by visiting working smiths all I could.  I still remember the 2 on 1 class I had in pattern welding and the instructor yelling at me "Don't look at it HIT IT!" as I was trying to learn the correct colour to work those steels at.

[JPH]

howdy..just a thought  ( I do get them every now and then...) have you considered using a liquid flux soak prior to the first welding heat?? I use one and it does help...ALOT.. As I said..just a passing thought..

JPH

[Frosty]

Liquid flux Jim? In what way is it liquid: molten, dissolved, other? 

I'll listen to your thoughts any time you'll let me in on them.

Frosty The Lucky.

[Steve Sells]

Dissolve the borax and boric acid in hot water, make it super saturate, then dip the metal and allow to dry, it will all be coated in a thin layer

[Benona blacksmith]

Borax and acetone works. The idea is to dissolve the borax and when you pull the billet from it the borax will get between layers and the acetone will dry off leaving the borax. 

There is also the kerosene trick.

[JPH]

Howdy!!

While ya'all got the mostly of what I am talking about as far as the liquid flux..most folks will benefit from the borax and boric acid mix.. Now... I will admit that  I add a few other things to mine since I am welding some heavy weight alloy stuff (and that stainless can be a real bugger.)...but the basic idea is the same.. it does get "down in there" and I feel that it makes a difference.. and when you do a surface application of the same basic flux it really does help...but here again..I ain't nobody of any sort of importance..just an old hammer head working in his front yard.  All I know is that it works for me..

Hope this helps...

JPH

[ThomasPowers]

Have you made any changes to your "steel Glue" flux recipe in the last decade or so since I pulled a copy?

[billyO]

On 4/21/2020 at 8:16 AM, mpc said:

on to the anvil for some firm, straight blows (so it didn’t shift)

Good morning, mpc.  Any luck?  Another thing I thought of that I didn't see mentioned was the importance of proper hammering pattern when using flux.  When I was using borax for flux, I'd make sure that I tapered the edges of each piece when grinding and prepping the billet, to give the flux an easier escape path for the weld-setting hammer blows.  I would also make sure that my first hammer blows ran down the center of the billet, forcing the flux out to the sides (and preventing it from getting trapped and creating a void in the billet), before hammering on the sides.  They say pictures are worth 1000 words: