JC week 9 silver soldering brass with a propane torch

NB: journal entry for the Jewellery and Small object module at South bank Griffith university (QCA) to view the full journal click here

silver soldering brass with a propane torch

ABOVE: these are the brass cylinders that are to be soldered, they are 10cm circumference by 11cm high

Preparation is important for soldering, make sure you have everything you need before you start especially EYE PROTECTION. 

ABOVE: make sure that you have sufficient silver solder bits cut.  Medium silver solder will be used for added strenth and the lenths will be cut at approx 1mm. I cut enough for 4 pieces of solder for each cylinder and a few just incase they fall off, which  happens.

ABOVE: pictured here are EYE PROTECTION,  the silver solder pieces are in the piece or paper to reduce loss and make picking up easaier, a Titanium pick (bottom center) this is needed as it can handle the high heat and move the solder around , fire bricks

ABOVE : the use of the fire bricks is to stop the brass cylinder from falling over while heating,  This also demonstrates the placement of the silver solder pieces. NOTE after this photo was taken I took the silver solder off the brass cylinder, and applied a coat of flux paste to the join, this helps in  placing the silver solder and acting as a guage of how hot the brass gets (turning clear  indicates annealing temperature)
To solder the brass, apply heat with a propane torch, the idea is not to focus on the silver solder pieces directly, but instead to focus on heating the metal directly around .
I discovered very quickly that such a large piece of brass was difficult to solder  taking a VERY long time ( 55mins approx ) and required the assistance of a second propane torch to get the solder to melt and bond effectively. Sadly some of the joins were ineffective due to lack of sufficient heat. 

ABOVE : finally once the solder has air cooled and been quenched ( placed in a dish of cold water) the brass can be placed in a citric acid bath for 5 minutes and cleaned with a medium copper wire brush.

Other class activities

After soldering the brass cylinders I took the opportunity to anneal the cross guard pieces for the sword in preperation for the next step