quite a sight indeed eh?
Admittedly, this is partly because I do my forging in charcoal atm which mean it's very easy to get bad scaling. And esp the thicker billet where I use borax as flux, that always leaves a thick crust on the outside where the flux and the charcoal touch.
Sometime early next year I want to switch to propane, which should give me a cleaner fire, and also make it much easier to make my own Damascus billets.