Burned 3 billets before I figured out my forge was running too cold

I spent about 4 hours last Saturday trying to forge weld a billet and it kept shearing apart at the edges no matter how much flux I dumped on it. A guy named Walt who has been smithing for 30 years watched me for two minutes, stuck his hand near my forge door, and said my heat was the problem, not my hammer work. How do you all check your forge temp without a pyrometer, or am I the only one who has been guessing this whole time?

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murray.robert3d ago

Man, Walt sticking his hand near the door is such a blacksmith move. I read somewhere that you can judge it by color in low light, like a dull orange is around 1500 and bright yellow is pushing 2000, but the shade in your shop throws that off. Borrowing a buddy's pyrometer for one weekend would save you way more than 3 billets, just saying.

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