Finally got my forge welding to hold after 6 months of trying

Been working on forge welding for about half a year now and it just clicked last week. I was always getting cold shuts or the weld would just fall apart on the anvil. Turns out I was heating the steel too fast and not letting it soak long enough at welding temp. I did a stack of 5 layers of 1095 and 15n20 and they fused solid all the way through. Anyone else have a specific trick that made forge welding click for them?

2 comments

2 Comments

dixon.ryan16d ago

The flux type made a huge difference for me. I switched from borax to a 50/50 mix of borax and boric acid and it just started working. Also, waiting until the steel looks like wet sand before you even think about bringing it to welding heat, that was another thing. Getting the surfaces perfectly flat before stacking helped too, I spent a whole afternoon grinding just to make sure everything was square. Patience with the heat soak is the real secret though, rushing it is the number one killer of good welds.

rayc8916d ago

That 50/50 flux mix is way overrated in my experience. I've been using straight borax for years and never had a weld fail because of it. The real issue with most guys is they don't clean the steel well enough before fluxing or they're trying to weld at too low a temp. @dixon.ryan if you're seeing "wet sand" you're probably already burning off too much carbon. I take mine straight from a good heat soak right to welding temp without that extra stage and my billets come out clean every time. All that extra grinding and fussing just adds time...