Getting a clean weld on a thick axe head took me three whole days

I mean, I thought I could fix a crack in this old splitting maul head in an afternoon, easy. It was a clean break, maybe an inch long, and I've done plenty of forge welding before. I got it up to a good heat, fluxed it, and hammered it shut. Looked solid. But the next day, after I ground it smooth, I saw a tiny hairline crack right along the weld line. I tried again, thinking I just needed more heat. Same thing. It took me three tries and basically two extra days of messing with the fire, the flux mix, and my hammering pattern to finally get a weld that held without a single flaw. I was so sure it was a simple job. Has anyone else had a weld look perfect until you start grinding it down?

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tessa_schmidt196mo ago

Man, that's the worst feeling. I bet the first welds looked solid because the surface scale fused, but the crack hid deeper where the heat didn't quite soak all the way through. Thick steel like that is a heat sink. I've had that happen on a hammer eye repair. You get a perfect skin over a cold shut and only the grinder finds the truth. What did you end up changing for the final try, your soak time or the heat itself?

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taylor3246mo ago

Disagree completely. That crack wasn't about heat soak. You get a cold shut from moving too fast and not filling the joint, not from the steel thickness. Honestly, I'd bet the root pass was just too thin and it cracked from stress alone after it cooled. Seen it a hundred times. More heat just warps it, you need a better weld sequence.

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