Spent 6 hours trying to get a forge weld to stick on a simple axe

Everyone talks about forge welding like it's easy once you get the heat right. I spent an entire Saturday fighting a mild steel bit into a wrought iron head and it just kept flaking off. Turns out my flux was old and contaminated with moisture, not the heat or hammer technique. Has anyone else dealt with old borax ruining their welds?

3 comments

3 Comments

elliot_taylor21d ago

Three attempts with fresh borax from a hardware store fixed my own forge welding problems last month. Old flux absorbs moisture from the air and turns into a useless paste that just burns off before the weld sets. I keep my borax in a sealed glass jar now and replace it every six months to avoid that frustration.

verawhite21d ago

I switched to a fresh 2 pound bag of borax from the grocery store and kept it in a mason jar with a tight lid. The old stuff had been sitting in a cardboard box in my garage for over a year and was clumpy. Once I started using dry flux, my welds stuck on the first heat without any issues.

elliot_johnson3121d ago

Switched to a fresh bag of borax and kept it in a sealed Tupperware container after that same headache. @elliot_taylor nailed it, moisture is the enemy. My welds started sticking on the first heat after that change.