I know this comes up again and again...and I have read everything I can find but I still can't get it to work. I have GOT to learn how to do this! I can solder electronics all day and never get a bad joint! This knife guard soldering is frustrating the heck out of me. I have some lead free silver bearing (95% tin 5% silver IIRC) and flux (Oatley, again IIRC) and I managed to get it to stick brass to 1095 carbon steel, but this knife is AUS-8 stainless and the guard is nickel-silver. After smoking myself out of the garage I ended up with a mess. After hammering the mess apart I never got the slightest bit of adhesion to the stainless...but I did get it to stick to the nickel silver guard.
I am using a propane torch. I roughen (120 grit), clean (acetone) and fit everything up, slather on a uniform layer of flux, lightly clamp it together, and then begin indirect heating. When the flux sizzles I start rubbing the solder against the metal opposite the torch until it begins to melt, then I rub the seam I want soldered until it melts the solder. After watching most of an inch of solder wire slide off onto the floor I begin to flux the seam some more. After very heavily fluxing it several times I got the solder to stick to the guard, and it even wicked under the guard about 1/4", but if NEVER stuck to the blade steel. Ultimately that was lucky because it made busting it all apart easier, so I salvaged it and used JB Weld on it this morning...but I really wanted this guard soldered on so I didn't have the gray line of JB weld at the seam.
Is stainless just that hard to solder? What am I doing wrong?
I am using a propane torch. I roughen (120 grit), clean (acetone) and fit everything up, slather on a uniform layer of flux, lightly clamp it together, and then begin indirect heating. When the flux sizzles I start rubbing the solder against the metal opposite the torch until it begins to melt, then I rub the seam I want soldered until it melts the solder. After watching most of an inch of solder wire slide off onto the floor I begin to flux the seam some more. After very heavily fluxing it several times I got the solder to stick to the guard, and it even wicked under the guard about 1/4", but if NEVER stuck to the blade steel. Ultimately that was lucky because it made busting it all apart easier, so I salvaged it and used JB Weld on it this morning...but I really wanted this guard soldered on so I didn't have the gray line of JB weld at the seam.
Is stainless just that hard to solder? What am I doing wrong?
