After 12 years of forge welding I finally tried borax flux on a stack of 1095 and damascus I had sitting around

I always thought flux was just a crutch for beginners, but after watching a coworker at the shop in Portland get a perfect weld on his first try with it last month, I gave in and now I'm kicking myself for all those failed billets I tossed in the scrap barrel, anyone else stubbornly skip flux for way too long?

3 comments

3 Comments

kelly38523d ago

The thing nobody talks about is how much heat you waste without flux. That borax does more than just keep the scale out, it actually helps the heat transfer between the layers way more consistent. I had a buddy who runs a production shop calculate it out once and he figured he was spending like 20% more time at the forge just waiting for the damn billet to soak through without it. Plus with 1095 you're already fighting that narrow window before the carbon starts burning off, so anything that speeds up the process is basically saving your steel from the fire.

kelly_west7423d ago

Heard a smith once say flux is cheap, time is expensive, and that always stuck with me.

troy83223d ago

Man I feel that in my bones since my home forge is basically a hairdryer and a soup can, so any time saved is a straight up miracle! Just gotta make sure I don't drop the whole borax jar in my coffee again.