Warning about forge welding in wet weather - heard from a guy at the scrap yard

I was loading some railroad spikes last Tuesday and an old timer told me he ruined a whole batch of damascus billets because of moisture in the air. He said it causes micro-fractures you can't see until the blade fails under stress. Has anyone else noticed problems with their welds when the humidity is above 70 percent?

2 comments

2 Comments

miles721mo ago

Buddy of mine lost a knife edge during testing after a humid day forge welding.

miam751mo ago

Wait, micro-fractures from just humid air? That sounds wild but I've never heard that one before. I've welded in muggy Carolina summers plenty and never noticed anything visibly wrong with my billets. But now I'm second guessing that one batch of cable damascus that cracked weird last July.