[TheForge] Re: Flux, was rust & pickling

Thu Aug 21 17:07:03 2003

Who came up with the Japanese Swordsmith flux? I study swordsmithing in
Japan and never heard of that mixture.
Bill
[email protected]
 http://home.centurytel.net/Fiorini_and_Skiles

----- Original Message -----
From: "Cameron Stoker" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Wednesday, August 20, 2003 7:54 PM
Subject: Re: [TheForge] Re: Flux, was rust & pickling

> I just tried drying out my borax today.  I placed about 4lbs. of 20
> mule into an electric deep frier (no oil, just dry). Cooked it without
> the lid on till I stopped seeing water vapor condense on a cold glass
> above the pot. Took about 4 hours.
> I made a batch of modified japanese sword-smiths flux (in this ratio: 3
> borax, 3 boric acid, 3 anvil scale, 1 salt, 1 bandsaw swarf) and tried
> it out.  It is quite an improvement over plain, hydrous borax.  I could
> stick two 1/2" round bars together in the fire and have the adhesion be
> strong enough to hold them together while I pulled them out of the fire
> and over to the anvil. Also, the residue from this flux doesn't seem to
> be white like plain borax, it color matched the pieces quite well.
> I'd highly recommend that anyone who hasn't tried mixing up a batch of
> flux do so.
> Thanks for posting the recipes.
> I ordered 20lbs. of flourspar today to experiment with in the future.
> This additive seems to be the key to getting stainless forge welds to
> work.
>
> theforge is great
>
> On Tuesday, August 19, 2003, at 06:20 PM, Ed F wrote:
>
> > Shees you guys.  Yes this has come up before, and about 3 years ago
> > after
> > (the first time) I said that I dried it successfully in the oven
> > there was
> > a bunch of hubbub about maybe it would work and maybe it wouldn't, and
> > finally someone suggested that it might be worth trying.
> >
> > After all this talk has anyone else tried that?  Would someone
> > *PLEASE* go
> > put some on a cookie sheet and stick in the oven?  Again, stir it
> > while it's
> > drying or it will cake up.
> >
> > Ed
> Cameron Stoker
> [email protected]
> "May you run like a vicu�a!"
> pgp key @ http://keys.stoker.net
>
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