[TheForge] Re: Rust,pickling

[Dan Tull]

Yea, and Steve Kayne welds without any flux. Better?
You decide.


dan tull
georgia
abba, afc, S.C. psba, obg,sofa
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Chuck Robinson" <robi5515@bellsouth.net>
To: <theforge@mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Friday, August 15, 2003 1:13 PM
Subject: Re: [TheForge] Re: Rust,pickling


> Hey Dan,
> Many years ago I attended my first blacksmithing conference in Vicksburg
> Mississippi. I watched Bob Patrick effortlessly do about 20 forge welds
> under what I later realized were less than ideal conditions. I decided
that
> it looked pretty easy and since I had read several books on the subject I
> was sure I was in like Flynn.
> Boy was I surprised when my first attempts were dismal failures
> I eventually got some halfway decent welds made. Then, one year I went to
> Campbell Folk School and got to work with Chuck Patrick, who is among many
> other things, another master forge welder.
> I seriously thought changing my last name to Patrick might help, but
> realized that chuck P. might not appreciate it.
> All during this time period, my welding flux was standard 20 mule team
> borax.
> About 15 years ago, when I started seriously forging  250 + layer,
damascus
> blades, a good friend of mine was working in the metallurgy  Lab at Miss,
> State.
> He did a micrographic analysis of the damascus several bladesmiths sent
him,
> and discovered that very few forge welds had more than 80% fusion across
the
> weld boundaries.
> My  welds  were not consistent, varying from less than 50% to about 85% in
> the same sample.
> Desperate for ways of improving my welds I switched to  industrial
anhydrous
> borax. The welds improved but not enough to satisfy me, until I added
Boric
> acid powder and Fluorspar the borax  to dissolve the oxides  on the Nickel
> layers in the Billet.
> This was also when I started using my D/Gold face mask so I could more
> clearly see the billet in the forge.
> Due to the large number of variables in forge welding it is difficult to
> predict being able to always make a good weld.
> Did the change from 20MT borax to anhydrous borax help my welds?
> Yes.
> Will it work for you? Maybe.
> Chuck Patrick demonstrated using Mud dauber nests  and river sand to make
> some excellent welds.
> Michael Bell demonstrated forge welding a Katana blade billet using the
some
> local  creek mud slurry and the ash from dried vines that he burned on the
f
> orge floor while he was forging.
> Last year Bob Patrick demonstrated at our Gulf Coast Blacksmith's
conference
> and put on another dazzling show of forge welding.
> One weld he did, to attach a single piece point and hook to a fireplace
> poker with a Y shaped weld was really impressive.
> I asked him there about  20MT borax flux vs. Anhydrous borax.
> He specifically said that it was the anti caking ingredient not only the
> bound H2O that made the 20MT borax less effective. He also explained why
the
> ACI made welding more difficult, but I don't remember his explanation.
> Does 20MT borax work? Yes
> Is it as good as  Anhydrous? You decide for yourself.
> Do I believe Bob knows what he is talking about when he says there is an
> anticaking ingrediant in it?
> If Bob told me that the secret ingrediant in his "super flux"  was
purified
> yak dung mixed with vampire bat blood, I would try it.
> Chuck
>
>