Just figured out why my forge welds kept failing

I was having trouble with forge welds coming apart after a few heats. Tried different fluxes, hotter fires, nothing stuck. Then an old smith at a meetup in Portland told me to check my anvil face for cold spots. Sure enough, I had a thin layer of scale and oil baked on from years of use. Spent 20 minutes with a wire brush and some sandpaper cleaning it flat. Now my welds hold every time. Anyone else had a simple surface prep fix that solved a bigger problem?

2 comments

2 Comments

nora545d ago

Man, cleaning the contact points fixed my brazing issues too.

lucas_hunt6d ago

That "thin layer of scale and oil" you mentioned might be less about prep and more about how your anvil absorbs heat now lol. I wonder if the baked on gunk was actually insulating the surface and causing a temperature differential that killed your welds.

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