This is the first of a two-parter in which ESAB’s Mick Andrews takes Andrew Pearce through the finer points of hardfacing, piercing and gouging. Sounds painful… Hardfacing is something of a mystery.

Remember the 80’s movie, Flashdance? The female lead, Jennifer Beals, was a welder by day in a Pittsburgh steel mill and for many people that was their first glimpse of what a welder did for a living.

In the second part of our series on hardfacing, ESAB’s Mick Andrews walks Andrew Pearce through gouging. In part 1 we covered a lot of ground – rod selection, buffering layers, pre-heating and cooling ...