soldering guards

boisebman

boisebman

Joined
Nov 26, 2005
Messages
76
I have a question about soldering guards on knives. I have been soldering the guards on my knives for about 3 years and over time have gotten better at it. I have a knife that i did come back with some discoloration between the guard and blade and it looks like it is leaching out of the soldered area.
So I am wondering what causes that. I use stainless steel guards and ats-34 and nickel silver solder.
Is there a way to fix it ?
How can I keep this from happening again ?

Thanks for any help.
 
That's flux that was trapped between the guard and handle. It's supposed to be a good idea to soak the blade in something like baking soda and water after soldering to neutralize the acids.

I don't know how to assure that absolutely no flux remains hidden away though.

Mike L.
 
I do use baking soda to neutralize the flux. I might have had a pin size hole in the soldering itself. Would that be the cause of the problem ? Maybe some of the flux got trapped in there ?
 
The problem is not the pin hole. The problem is a cold solder joint with trapped flux. The pinhole is just evidence of the cold solder joint. The baking soda has to have access to the flux in order to neutralize it. If the flux is trapped under the guard, the baking soda likely will not be able to get to it. A pin hole in the solder is not enough. A pin hole is also not necessary to allow the flux to eat its way out. It can eventually do that on its own.

Cold solder joints happen on some of the best knives. The only way I know to be sure that it never happens is to not solder the guards or bolsters on.
 
Ammonia is much better at neutralizing acid flux than baking soda.
 
I'm gonna go with flatgrinder on this one.. press fit your guards so solder is not needed.. Solder always seemed to cause me more issues than it solved.
 
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