- Joined
- Jan 18, 2004
- Messages
- 1,135
I had 6 guards that needed to be soldered onto some of my forged 52100 blade blanks. I decided to build a little gizmo I saw on Bob Loveless's video. It's a metal fixture made to fit into one of those high wattage soldering irons. I took a bolt that would fit into the soldering iron (after removing the old tip), and brazed it onto a piece of copper, that was .25" thick. I had cut a .25" groove into the piece of copper so the blade and guard could rest there.
Here's looking at the soldering iron with the jig clamped in it:
And here's the jig with a knife resting in it:
If you want some pressure on the guard to help keep it all lined up, you can use a spring on the tang, underneath the jig, and put a small diameter screw or whatever through one of the tang pin holes, after pulling the spring up past it (hope that made a little sense).
Anyway, this method worked like a charm! I had accumulated 4 different brands of solder and fluxes over the years, so I tried each to see what worked best for me, with this soldering iron gizmo. The solders I had were TIX (comes with a tube of 3" long pieces of solder, and liquid flux) that I got from Kovals. I also had a "kit" of StayBright Silver Solder, which also had some liquid flux with it. Not sure where I bought it. I also had some solder I bought from Rade Hawkens, and the flux is called Southern Specialty. You buy the solder and flux together. Last I had was from Radio Shack. I remember Bill Buxton once saying that he used this product. It's called Radio Shack High Tech Rosin Core Silver Bearing Solder, # 64-013E.
Ok, so which was best? Well, they were all good. The TIX is probably the most expensive for what you get, I went through the tiny lengths of solder pretty fast, but it really worked good. The Stay Bright Kit worked just fine also. Rade's Southern Specialty had no problems. I ran into a little problem with the Radio Shack product for some reason, as it just didn't want to flow until I used someone else's liquid flux. Since it's already a flux cored solder, I was worried about mixing two seperate types of flux in there, and possibly having corrosion problems on down the line. I'm not saying it's not a good product, just that I need to work with it more. So which one do I recommend? I found them all to be good, with the exception of the Radio Shack solder, and again, that's more a problem with me than the solder probably. I will say this, to me, the best "Band for the Buck", is Rade Hawkins Southern Specialty. He sends out a generous supply of both the solder and the flux, and it preformed flawlessly. Again, all worked well except for the one that I noted earlier.
One other thing, the soldering iron was something I've had since a kid. I see that you can get them on Ebay for $50+. Mine is a 200 watt iron. It doesn't take long at all to get the guard and blade up to heat. Here's my trick for knowing when it's ready to solder: while it's heating up, and the blade/guard is in the jig, I touch the guard and blade every so ofter with a piece of solder. When both guard and blade cause the solder to start melting, then I apply the liquid flux generiously. I wait a while longer, and apply the solder to the joint. After I feel I have enough in the joint, I take a nail and travel around the joint with it. This seems to close up any little blank spots that are in the joint. After it's cooled down, I remove the excess solder with a 1/8th" brass rod, that I've shaped the end into a 90 degree face, with the face tilted back about 15 degrees. This helps cut through the excess solder, without harming the steel.
There are many more solders out there on the market, and I'm still experimenting. I'm wanting to try one that I don't think I can even spell correctly, Electuid 157 or something along those lines. This little experiment wasn't to see which is the best solder, it merely told me which of the 4 solders I had on my shelf, worked best with my soldering iron jig. I hope it's of some value to some of you guys.
Here's looking at the soldering iron with the jig clamped in it:
And here's the jig with a knife resting in it:
If you want some pressure on the guard to help keep it all lined up, you can use a spring on the tang, underneath the jig, and put a small diameter screw or whatever through one of the tang pin holes, after pulling the spring up past it (hope that made a little sense).
Anyway, this method worked like a charm! I had accumulated 4 different brands of solder and fluxes over the years, so I tried each to see what worked best for me, with this soldering iron gizmo. The solders I had were TIX (comes with a tube of 3" long pieces of solder, and liquid flux) that I got from Kovals. I also had a "kit" of StayBright Silver Solder, which also had some liquid flux with it. Not sure where I bought it. I also had some solder I bought from Rade Hawkens, and the flux is called Southern Specialty. You buy the solder and flux together. Last I had was from Radio Shack. I remember Bill Buxton once saying that he used this product. It's called Radio Shack High Tech Rosin Core Silver Bearing Solder, # 64-013E.
Ok, so which was best? Well, they were all good. The TIX is probably the most expensive for what you get, I went through the tiny lengths of solder pretty fast, but it really worked good. The Stay Bright Kit worked just fine also. Rade's Southern Specialty had no problems. I ran into a little problem with the Radio Shack product for some reason, as it just didn't want to flow until I used someone else's liquid flux. Since it's already a flux cored solder, I was worried about mixing two seperate types of flux in there, and possibly having corrosion problems on down the line. I'm not saying it's not a good product, just that I need to work with it more. So which one do I recommend? I found them all to be good, with the exception of the Radio Shack solder, and again, that's more a problem with me than the solder probably. I will say this, to me, the best "Band for the Buck", is Rade Hawkins Southern Specialty. He sends out a generous supply of both the solder and the flux, and it preformed flawlessly. Again, all worked well except for the one that I noted earlier.
One other thing, the soldering iron was something I've had since a kid. I see that you can get them on Ebay for $50+. Mine is a 200 watt iron. It doesn't take long at all to get the guard and blade up to heat. Here's my trick for knowing when it's ready to solder: while it's heating up, and the blade/guard is in the jig, I touch the guard and blade every so ofter with a piece of solder. When both guard and blade cause the solder to start melting, then I apply the liquid flux generiously. I wait a while longer, and apply the solder to the joint. After I feel I have enough in the joint, I take a nail and travel around the joint with it. This seems to close up any little blank spots that are in the joint. After it's cooled down, I remove the excess solder with a 1/8th" brass rod, that I've shaped the end into a 90 degree face, with the face tilted back about 15 degrees. This helps cut through the excess solder, without harming the steel.
There are many more solders out there on the market, and I'm still experimenting. I'm wanting to try one that I don't think I can even spell correctly, Electuid 157 or something along those lines. This little experiment wasn't to see which is the best solder, it merely told me which of the 4 solders I had on my shelf, worked best with my soldering iron jig. I hope it's of some value to some of you guys.
