Interesting Solder Trick

[Greg Covington]

I had to solder a relatively large guard of 316 stainless to a 5160 blade today and got a real nice solder line. While cleaning up the joint with my brass graver, I uncovered a very noticeable pit in the solder

The rest of the joint was great so I tried something that came to mind. The solder I used was Eutectic and it flows at 425F. I took a little nip of TIX soft solder and packed it down into the pit with a scribe and the used my torch directly on the area. TIX flows at 275F.....it melted and flowed perfectly into the joint without affecting the rest of the solder line. A little cleanup with the graver, sandpaper, and then the buff and it is perfect.

I don't know if this is considered cheating or not, but it sure worked.

 

[Mike Hull]

I'm amazed that you can solder 300 series SS at all. I found it next to impossible to solder to a stainless blade. I checked around and found that many others have the same problem. Congrats!

Incidentlly, I have a 1/4 X 2 X 34" piece of that stuff, and would trade it for almost anything, in case you or anyone else is interested.

 

[Bruce Bump]

Greg Thanks for the tip. I may need that one some day.

 

[Greg Covington]

Originally posted by Bruce Bump
Greg Thanks for the tip. I may need that one some day.

Yeah....I really hate "unsoldering" a guard and then trying it again...seems to go worse the second time. I have always had great luck with Eutectic, but this guard was a real monster and the blade width was 2 inches at the guard.