[TheForge] Re: Rust,pickling

Fri Aug 15 13:31:01 2003

So do Bob and Chuck and 50 or so other demonstrators I have watched, but how
many of them do it with out flux, when they are doing a real weld that will
actually be used?
----- Original Message -----
From: "Dan Tull" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Friday, August 15, 2003 12:16 PM
Subject: Re: [TheForge] Re: Rust,pickling


> 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" <[email protected]>
> To: <[email protected]>
> 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
> >
> >
>
>
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