A journeyman in Toledo shamed my forge welds, and I'm glad he did

I used to slap a scarf on two pieces of 3/8 round bar, crank the heat, and hope the hammer did the rest. A journeyman out of Toledo watched me do it at a hammer-in 6 months ago and asked why I wasn't brushing the scale off before every single heat. I brushed maybe once at the start and never again, and he pointed out that's why my welds kept popping apart under the power hammer. So I started wire brushing the joint and the anvil face before each pass, and keeping the heat at a proper yellow instead of that dull orange I was settling for. First try after that, the test piece bent 90 degrees cold with no crack at the seam, and I just stood there looking at it. Anybody got a brush they actually like for this, because my cheap one is shedding bristles into the fire?

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viola_lopez301mo ago

Did you notice the anvil face brushing made as much difference as the joint itself? That scale on the anvil is basically a release agent, so keeping it clean lets the weld actually bite instead of sliding around.

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