Soldering stainless steel

Has anyone had experience soldering stainless steel to gold? I am
currently blind soldering a stainless steel post inside a ball with
white gold paste solder. This works but I still get a 20% reject on
the bond. Any suggestions on solders or techniques to try?

Yes, this is not uncommon in repair of watchbands. I would suggest
that you go to your Oxygen suppler and purchase a good grade
industrial silver brazing allow and a past flux for stainless steel.
Silver brazing is an easy process similar to using easy silver
solder, The alloys are virtually the same, and have similar flow
points.

WayneM

Greeetings- Anyone have advice on hard soldering 18k to stainless.
Have had limited success using handy flux and easy solder. Would I
need to plate the stainless prior to soldering? Thanks in advance. Sean

I would be curious to know if anyone has any tips for soldering
stainless steel reliably with a low temp solder (in the 400 degree
range), preferably a paste type solder that will closely match
stainless or polished high carbon steel. In addition to learning
about jewelry I am also interested in bladesmithing and a low temp
solder is critical so I don’t loose the temper in the blade. I am
amazed that such a fabulous site such as this exists for people
interested in jewelry and working metal.

Thank you
Scott Damschen
Tucson AZ

Hi Scott, I took a small sculpture class in Stainless Steel at The
Crucible in Berkeley. For soldering we used medium silver wire
solder. I haven’t tried low temp solder yet but have some scraps and
will test out with tix and stabrite (write results tomorrow).

Molly G.

As promised I did a quick test with some lower temp solders. Tix
and StayBrite both adhered fine to the stainless. StayBrite had a
stronger bond. The flow temp for Tix is 260F and StayBrite is 430F.

Molly G., at Patania’s

Hi Molly, Stainless can also be soldered with standard silver
solders, and even karat gold solders - just make sure you use a flux
designed for that purpose. The flux we currently use is called
"Handy Flux - Type B-1" and is made by Handy & Harmon in New York.
Our local welding supply carries it. They also carry a “stick” type
of silver solder that is pre-coated with flux.

For low temperature stainless soldering, (475 degrees) I use
"Brownell’s Hi-Force 44 Solder" - available from Brownells, Inc.,
Montezuma, Iowa. It also requires a special flux, “No. 4 Comet Flux”

  • also available from Brownells.

As always, use proper ventilation - some of these fluxes put off
fumes that will kill the canary…

These are items I discovered back when I was a puppy - I used to do
blacksmithing, gunsmithing, and knifemaking…

Brian P. Marshall
Stockton Jewelry Arts School (Re-opening Spring of 2003)
2207 Lucile Ave.
Stockton, CA 95209
209-957-6731
209-477-0550 Workshop/Classrooms

I have found that using the brandname HandyFlux stainless steels may
be torch soldered with regular silver and gold solders. You do have
to be sure the metals are clean first, even with this "self cleaning"
flux. Flow will be limited somewhat due to heat variables and flux
action. The technique takes a couple of tries to see how it works. Be
sure with this flux to have very good ventilation. You do not want to
breath the fumes of the flourides containing flux. �

Blessing and Peace. Thomas.� @Sp.T.

As to soldering stainless steel and gold, I found that this flux
works great.

Activatec 1000 part # D008860 I believe From: EUTECTIC CORP 172nd
Street Flushings, IL 11358 718-358-4000

THe stuff is very expensive, anyone out there willing to split the
smallest size, which was 1 gal. let me know. Good luck

So I have a bunch of stainless steel I was given and was wondering if
anyone works in Stainless? I know I can etch it and forge it but is
it possible to solder it? Also, what would be a good solder to attach
brass pins to the back? I have no welding capabilities at this point
so that would beout of the question. Not to mention I am attaching
brass so although brazing might be better it may also melt my pin!
Thanks, Angus

I know that you can use gold solder with a brazing flux from your
local welding supply store, silver soldering will also work. The
flux is the trick…

Not to mention I am attaching brass so although brazing might be
better it may also melt my pin! 

Here in UK, there is (or certainly was) a distinction between hard
soldering and brazing: brazing traditionally means soldering with
brass as the solder (and this will certainly melt your brass pin)
whereas hard soldering means using a solder (other than brass) that
has a melting point greater than about 400C (which would be fine for
brass).

You cannot use a soldering iron for hard solder; the melting point
is far too high, you need a hot flame.

Hard solders are based on alloys containing silver, and in UK are
generally referred to as “silver solders”; the process being known
as “silver soldering”.

You can hard solder stainless steel in the same way that you solder
gold, silver, copper, brass, etc. - the only caveat being that some
grades of stainless require a special flux. EasyFlo flux works with
most grades of stainless, but Tenacity works with all that I’ve
tried.

After the joint is made, EasyFlo can be removed with hot water, but
Tenacity requires a lot more effort.

If you have never tried hard soldering, then give it a try, but
don’t try it on anything that you value - it requires a certain
amount of practise.

IHTH
Regards, Gary Wooding

You could say I work with a little bit of stainless :wink:

Black flux is what you need, you can use regular silver solder with
this, keep in mind your standard pickle will not remove this flux.
Especially if you over heat it, that will need to be mechanically
removed.

P@

I’ve had good luck fusing stainless using nickle as my solder.

I used nickels.

Paf Dvorak