[TheForge] Re: flux additives

Sun Aug 17 20:21:02 2003

Heck, I can try that flux right away.
I work in a pottery, and just happened to have had them order for me some boric
acid and red iron oxide.
Matter of fact, I can try both fluxes, considering I also have the borax and
"slag".

I'll try them and report how they work.

On a side note, as an experiment, I took a clay pot and rolled it around in
some forging scale (after crushing it to relatively small particle size).
It creates a really neat effect. So neat, in fact, that we're doing it again
next week on a very large pot. In the pottery shop we call it "Ingredient X".

Bob

-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected]
[mailto:[email protected]]On Behalf Of David E. Smucker
Sent: Sunday, August 17, 2003 7:42 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: [TheForge] Re: flux additives

<snip>
I too find the "Japanese bladesmith formula" for flux: 1 part borax, 1 part
boric acid and 1 part slag from the anvil interesting.  Yes, I would assume
the anvil slag to be scale which is a rather pure iron oxide.  Some smiths
in this area use a flux that is 50 percent boric acid and 50 percent red
iron oxide.  They use roach poison for the boric acid and iron oxide from a
pottery supply house.  I still not quite sure of the chemical reaction of
the iron oxide -- in helping the flux work.  Yes in the reduction
environment you will get free iron and form CO or CO2 but how does this help
the weld?  Does the free iron particles from the reduced iron oxide help the
weld "stick"?  I have seen Lynda Metcalfe stick some difficult welds using
this flux -- and it made it look easy.  Her flux had no borax in it at all.

In a interesting side note, the steel industry produces tons of scale in the
hot rolling of steel.  This scale is either sold for some chemical processes
as iron oxide or most is sent back to the blast furnace as a very pure iron
ore (100 % iron oxide).

Dave Smucker