A trick with borax from a guy at the Tucson forge-in

Last week at the Tucson meet, an older smith saw me fighting a weld on a railroad spike. He told me to try a pinch of borax right as the metal hits a bright orange, not yellow. I did it, and the scale just fell off clean. It let me get a solid forge weld on my first try. Anyone else have a good flux tip for tricky steels?

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3 Comments

adamgreen6mo ago

Ha! I usually just burn the scale off by accident.

2

sage_perry776mo ago

Oh man, @adamgreen, that's the real method right there. What are you cooking that lets you get away with that, just super high heat searing? I'd probably set off every smoke alarm in the building.

2

blairtaylor6mo ago

Scale is the worst, always ruins a good heat. That borax trick sounds like a lifesaver.

1