[TheForge] Last two events...long

[Phlip]

Ene bichizh ogsen baina shuu...

> Phlip,
>
> I feel I only "mastered" forge welding a couple years ago.  Since then
most of my welds have been decent.  However, at the fair this past weekend I
could not for the life of me make a weld.  The problem was sunlight -
indirect sunlight - sunlight my eyes see, even if it's not on the piece.
Sunlight is about 6000K, whereas welding is done around 2500F = ~1650K.
Curiously, the problem is not that things look too hot, but that they look
too cold.  I think part of it is that in sunlight, you see the scale on the
piece illuminated by sunlight, and not the radiation from the piece.  I may
be way off base on my reasoning, but I know there's a difference between
working in sunlight and working indoors.

Yeah, that might have been part of it, but we were reasonably well shaded-
and "I" could see the difference. I learned to forge weld 15 years ago,
though I haven't done much until recently, and steel at the right heat
looks, well, "fuzzy" to me, even through the flux (borax). And, yes, I'm
very used to working outdoors, in differing light conditions (can't imagine
why ;-) so I'm also used to compensating the apparent color shifts as the
light through the day shifts.

> Indoors, I find the welding heat easy to judge.  I can't use the trick
that the piece looks wet (it does) because the "wet" look is obscured by the
flux I use, which IS "wet."  Rather, I use the trick that the iron, at
welding heat, "disappears" in the fire.  You can see it only when you move
it.  This, of course, presupposes that the FIRE is at the appropriate heat,
but I don't find that any particular problem to achieve.  Throughout heating
to a welding heat, I'm staring at the piece in the fire, so that's not the
issue.

Well, that's what Ekk was suggesting against- the guy had been looking too
much, and losing his color judgement- and not looking so much seemed to
help, at least that afternoon.

> One beginner's error is failure to "soak" the piece.  If not enough of the
iron is hot - or if only the outside of the piece is hot - there isn't
enough time to complete the weld before the piece cools.  My "rhythm" is to
take the piece to red, remove it from the fire and apply flux (borax),
return it to the fire and heat to a near-welding heat � then keep it there
long enough for that heat to penetrate the piece.  (It's worthwhile to point
out to beginners that they are holding the other end of the piece in their
bare hand.  Iron does not conduct heat very quickly, and that is as true
from outside to inside as it is from one end to the other.)  Finally I crank
the fire a little more, the piece disappears in the fire, and I pull it out
and weld.  (Then I reflux and repeat at least once, often more.  I'm not
proud.)
>
> Bruce
> NJ

Well, we were using short pieces of cable for the blade stock, that being
what I had at the moment- damned if I'm going to put an entire scrapyard on
the back of that poor, abused trailer ;-)

I dunno- every now and then, I realize I've been doing this long enough that
I have established habits and ways of doing that work for me, but as a
teacher, I need to break them down so I can make these skills available to
my students. I guess what I'm really looking for, is how to explain to
someone how and what to see, just as a blind guy once explained to me, when
tuning instruments, what to look for and hear...

Phlip

"When in doubt, heat it up and hit it with a hammer."
 Blacksmith's credo.

 If it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it is probably not a
cat.

Never a horse that cain't be rode,
And never a rider who cain't be throwed....