A weird forge weld took me three full days to figure out

I was trying to forge weld a simple twist bar for a gate handle, something I've done a dozen times. My usual mix of borax and a clean fire just wasn't working; the steel would look ready but crumble apart under the hammer. I spent a whole Saturday checking my coal bed, adjusting the air, and cleaning the metal, thinking it was a simple flux issue. On Sunday, I finally called an old smith friend in Knoxville who asked, 'Is your coal fresh or did you get a new bag?' Turns out, the new bag of coal I bought had a high sulfur content, which I never even thought to check. It was poisoning the weld at the critical temperature. I had to drive an hour to get a different brand, start the whole fire over, and it finally took on the third attempt Monday evening. Has anyone else run into bad coal batches causing weld failures?

2 comments

2 Comments

henry_williams6314d ago

Wait, you can just... buy coal with too much sulfur in it? That's wild.

jessicab7014d ago

Right? It's like buying milk you know is already sour. They have to label it, but someone still takes it home. I saw a listing once that straight up said "high sulfur, not for home heating." Who's buying that? What are they doing with it?