Had a talk with an old timer about welding that made me question everything I learned in school

I was at a hammer-in last month in rural Pennsylvania and got into a conversation with a retired blacksmith named Roy who must be pushing 80. He told me that forge welding with a flux made from borax and a bit of iron filings works better than any store-bought product I've ever used. I've been paying $15 a jar for that fancy welding powder from the supply catalog, and he said I was wasting my money. At first I thought he was just being stubborn about old ways, but he showed me a weld he did on a chain link that was cleaner than anything I've managed. I tried his mix on a set of fire tongs the next day and the bond was so solid I couldn't find the seam. That really got me thinking about how much of the modern tools we buy are just repackaged versions of what people already knew 50 years ago. Has anyone else had an old timer change your mind about a technique or material you thought was outdated?

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chen.jenny6h ago

Is it possible that the old school flux actually works better because it's reacting with the specific metals you're using, while the store-bought stuff is made for a one-size-fits-all approach? I feel like a lot of modern products get "improved" by adding extra chemicals that just complicate things instead of making them perform better. Sometimes the simple recipe that came from years of trial and error beats whatever a lab engineer came up with last quarter.