I finally got the hang of forge welding after a bad start three years ago

Back when I first tried it in my old garage shop, I burned through three pieces of mild steel trying to get them to stick. The flux just bubbled off and left a mess. Last week, I tried again with a fresh can of borax and kept my fire at a steady orange heat, not white hot. The two pieces fused on the first solid hit with the hammer. I think the big difference was cleaning the metal with a wire brush right before the flux. What's your go-to trick for a clean forge weld?

3 comments

3 Comments

derek65621d agoMost Upvoted

Wait you let it soak for a full minute? Doesn't that just cook the flux into a crusty shell? I tried that once and it made a glassy mess I had to chip off. I keep it moving in the fire and just wait for the surface to look wet, maybe twenty seconds tops. A thick paste of borax sounds like overkill too, that's gotta drip everywhere and wreck your forge floor.

the_holly21d agoMost Upvoted

Clean the heck out of the steel with an angle grinder first. I mean, get it shiny bright right before it goes in the fire. That and using way more borax than you think you need, like a thick paste. Letting it soak at that orange heat for a full minute makes a huge difference for me.

wilson.anna21d ago

Whoa, hold on... I've had way better luck just wire-wheeling it to clean metal. A grinder can leave deep scratches that actually trap scale. And that much borax? It just runs off and makes a huge mess in the forge. A light dusting works fine if your metal is truly clean. Soaking that long just risks burning the steel.