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Thought forge welding was just old guys showing off, a guy in Ohio proved me wrong in 20 minutes
I always figured forge welding was one of those things guys brag about but never actually pull off on real work. Last weekend I drove out to a shop in Akron to buy some 1084 stock and the owner grabbed two pieces of 1/4 inch mild steel, fluxed them, and had a solid billet in maybe 20 minutes at a bright yellow heat. I checked the seam myself with a file and it was gone, no line, no void, nothing. Now I'm wondering what else I wrote off too fast, so what's something in the craft you dismissed early on that turned out to be the real deal?
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nathankim29d ago
Something people don't talk about enough is how much the old books get wrong about what you even need. I spent years thinking you needed a coal forge and a proper fire to weld, since that's what all the old texts push. Then a guy showed me a two brick propane forge doing the same job with a good flux and clean steel. Half the "rules" out there are just things we repeat because our teachers repeated them. The real trick is knowing when the steel is ready by color and feel, which no book can teach you.
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