[Jewelry making - Article 00099] - Re: [Orchid] Silver soldering forged steel

[jesse Brennan]

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    There are other things to consider than the flux. The black flux is
    better on ferrous materials than the white but that will work too.
    Don't ever rely on flux to clean the metal surface. It keeps the
    surface oxide free when heated. 

    Always clean the surface mechanically before silver brazing. On a
    forged steel item you may or probably want to retain the black oxide
    surface from the forging. This is an iron oxide, magnetite that is
    mill scale when thicker. then just spot polish the area that you want
    to solder then flux. 

    The balling up of the solder on a clean surface indicates first that
    you are melting the solder before the base material is hot enough. If
    the surface is dirty that does it too. 

    The rules may call for a neutral flame, but a very slightly reducing
    flame will work better. 

    This insures that the flame isn't oxidizing. With silver brazing you
    want to heat the part so it will be at soldering temperature before
    you apply the filler metal. On very heat conductive materials-- brass
    and copper, silver etc. this requires a big brushy flame depending on
    the object mass. 

    On a very poor conductor like stainless steel and a little less for
    steel, you don't need to get the whole piece hot just the area you
    want to join. In this case a much smaller tip is what you want as you
    will get the joint zone hot quickly and then be able to run the
    solder around the joint. Keep the heat toward the big side. If you
    don't stick and the material gets black -- clean up and start over--
    fooling with it won't help. Practice. 

    see: http://www.handyharmancanada.com/TheBrazingBook/bbook.htm 

jesse

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