Finally figured out why my forge welds kept failing

I've been smithing for about 2 years and kept getting cold shuts on my forge welds no matter what I tried. Last month I realized my flux was burning off too fast because I was heating the billet too slowly and letting it sit in the fire too long. Has anyone else fixed bad welds just by changing their heating rhythm?

3 comments

3 Comments

uma_martinez1mo ago

Wait, you were heating slowly on purpose? I thought slow heating was always better for forge welding. I used to baby my billets in the fire because I was scared of burning them. But after a year of fighting bad welds I switched to a hotter fire and faster heating. That made a huge difference for me. The flux would actually stay on long enough to work and I stopped getting those cold shuts. Makes sense when you think about it. Flux burns off way faster than the metal heats up.

rowanharris1mo ago

Flux burns off way faster than the metal heats up." That's one of those things I never thought about.

abbyg601mo ago

Read somewhere that the Japanese smiths heat their billets fast for welding too, something about keeping the flux active. Good advice for @uma_martinez, it saved me a ton of scrap steel.