rosepark•1mo agoProlific Poster

Finally got a clean weld on my first attempt at a Damascus billet

I spent all last week trying to get the forge weld to stick on a small 5-layer billet, and it kept delaminating. Yesterday, I cranked the propane forge a bit hotter, used a fresh batch of borax, and hammered it steady for about twenty minutes. The whole thing held together perfectly with no cold shuts. It's just a small square, but seeing those layers fuse after three failed tries feels huge. Has anyone else found a specific trick that finally made it click for them?

4 comments

4 Comments

daniel_carter1mo ago

Honestly that sounds like a total waste of propane to me. Twenty minutes of hammering on a tiny five-layer piece? I get way cleaner results just buying a pre-made billet from a good supplier. The time and fuel you burned on three failed tries could have paid for a finished bar twice the size. Sometimes the DIY route just isn't worth the hassle for a simple square.

harper_burns5913d ago

Hold up, buying a billet isn't the same as making one. You learn how to control the weld, which matters for more complex patterns later. That's not a waste, it's practice.

thompson.julia1mo ago

Yeah, that's the thing about learning a real skill. You see it everywhere now, people skipping the messy middle part. They want the end result without the failed tries, so they just buy the finished thing. But then you never learn why the layers stick or what the borax actually does. The hassle is the whole point.

brooke_foster511mo ago

Daniel's never had that moment where a billet finally welds right after five tries, you can just tell.