Guy at a demo in Asheville showed me a trick for judging heat by color and now my welds are way cleaner
I was at a small forge demo in Asheville two months back and this older smith named Ray was working a billet. He kept saying look at the shadow line not the glow. He meant watch the line where the bright hot metal meets the darker part because that line tells you more than the overall color. I went home and tried it on some 1084 flat bar. I used to just guess by the orange shade and I'd either burn it or not get it hot enough to move right. With the shadow line trick my heats got way more consistent, like maybe 8 out of 10 were right on instead of half. My twist and scroll work stopped cracking at the corners too. Has anyone else heard of watching that line or is it just something Ray does?