Tong weld snapped on a $4,000 commission piece

Last Tuesday I was drawing out a pair of fire tongs for a customer in Portland and the jaw weld gave way mid-strike. The piece was already shaped, so I had to start over with fresh stock and lost about 3 hours of work. I've been using the same mild steel for my tongs for 2 years and never had one fail like that. Turns out I'd been burning the flux off with a bad torch tip, so the weld was shallow the whole time. I re-did it with a proper scarf joint and a fresh tip, and it held fine on the next run. Anyone else had a tool fail at the worst possible moment like that, or is it just my luck?

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