Spent 3 hours on a forge weld and it just fell apart when I quenched it

I was out in my backyard in Phoenix last Tuesday, working on a damascus billet I'd been stacking for weeks. Got it up to a nice yellow heat, hit it like I always do, and when I dropped it in the brine it literally split right down the middle. Turns out I had a bit of mill scale I missed between two of the layers. Has anyone else had this happen with 1084 and 15n20? Feels like I wasted a whole afternoon for nothing.

3 comments

3 Comments

robinj2916d ago

Check your flux next time, that leftover scale really needs borax to burn out.

riveradams13d ago

Ugh yeah I feel you so hard on this! @robinj29 I've def been in that spot where I think I'm doing everything right but the scale just sits there mocking me. I was using a store brand flux for way too long and it was garbage, switched to one with actual borax content and it was like night and day. I also started keeping a little dish of borax powder next to my torch so I can dip the rod in it real quick before adding filler. It's one of those little things that just saves so much frustration later.

grant_allen8516d ago

yeah I had the same issue a while back and honestly what finally worked for me was switching to a borax based flux. I was using some rosin core stuff thinking it would be fine but that leftover scale just would not burn off no matter what I tried. once I started mixing a little extra borax into my regular flux it just dissolved that gunk like magic. I also found that if I let the piece heat soak a bit longer before adding the filler it gave the flux more time to break down the scale. another thing that helped was brushing the joint with a stainless brush while it was still hot, gets that stubborn stuff out of the way before it locks in. good luck with it though, once you get the flux right it makes a huge difference.