silver solder vs soft solder

[yip]

  i ran out of silver solder and making a two piece entry thimble, so i used soft solder and was wondering when they started using silver solder.

[P.W.Berkuta]

I would guess when they started making silver objects ----

[rich pierce]

I would guess when the soft solder joints failed.

[yip]

 i understand, but there has to be a time, a year when this happened. just wondering?

[Mike Brooks]

i understand, but there has to be a time, a year when this happened. just wondering?

June  6, 782 BC at 5 am

[rich pierce]

i understand, but there has to be a time, a year when this happened. just wondering?

It sounds like you’re making 2 assumptions I would not make. First, that “they” who made 2-piece rear thimbles joined together all switched from soft solder to hard solder in a specific time frame. Second, that we could somehow know when that was. What would be our data? There are next to zero period “how I do this” accounts by gunsmiths, and very few guns are dated and very few have 2 piece rear thimbles. So, there’s no way of knowing if there was a switch, and if so, when that happened.

[yip]

  thanks RICH.

[Mike Brooks]

  thanks RICH.

No thanks for me? I gave you a specific date!

[Daniel Coats]

According to Wikipedia silver solder has been used since 1955 to solder aluminum without the use of flux.

[Daniel Coats]

According to Wikipedia silver solder has been used since 1955 to solder aluminum without the use of flux.

Thanks Dan!

[Craig Wilcox]

Actually, Mike Brooks has it wrong.  The gunsmith had overslept that morning, and the switch was actually made at about 9:30 that morning.

[rick/pa]

Mike, did you account for the switch from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar?   

[yip]

 

[Steeltrap]

i understand, but there has to be a time, a year when this happened. just wondering?

June  6, 782 BC at 5 am

I thought it was 5:01:34?

[davec2]

Silver soldering....and gold soldering.....and copper soldering....have been used since the metals themselves have been worked.  Gold works made by the Etruscans before the age of Rome were "soldered" with a gold / copper alloy.  Silver work has been done the same way for more than 2000 years.  I would not worry about silver soldering being HC, if that is what is implied by your timing question.  "Brazing" with copper or brass or silver or gold is what you are really talking about in that you are using a metal that melts at nearly the same temperature as the parent metal rather than "soft" soldering where you are using a joining alloy that melts at a temperature far below the liquidus point (melting point) of the parent metal.

This is an example of the 6th century BC Etruscan gold "soldering" or brazing (this particular piece is in the British Museum).....

[yip]

VERY GOOD DAVE!