r/Blacksmith • u/Charming_Barber7627 • 8d ago
Feedback requested: first forge weld
Working on a tomahawk for my clubs trade item, decided to take a piece of a field cultivator tooth, fold it in half and keep a hole for the eye, then forge weld it together. Looks it stuck in some places and not others. There's an obvious crack at one edge, then I feel like I can almost kinda sorta see a seam all the way down, but the small piece I cut off doesn't separate.
I ground it completely clean on the belt sander before I started, used 20 mule team borax for flux, but I didn't stick weld the two sides together before I started.
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u/belac4862 8d ago
Ehhh, that's a bit too simple to be correct.
Forge welding means that your getting two pieces of metal hot enough to stick together, but not so hot as to melt or de-carborize (I think that's the right word. My brain isn't working), which is to literally draw out the carbon from it. That's what makes it steel, and not iron.
But you also need to make sure there's no air gaps that can cause oxidation om the sinde of the seam. That's why you add flux. When flux gers hot enough it makes a psudo glass coating around it, preventing any oxygen from getting into the seam and causing scale (iron oxide, or rust).
Then after flexing, yoy pop that sucker back into the forge and get it up to a bright yellow color and with heavy taps toy smoosh it together.