Subject: Re: silver solder

From: [email-masked] (Joshua_Putnam)
Date: 22 Jul 1996 18:42:26 GMT

In <[email-masked]> Abrasha <[email-masked]> writes:

>As far as I know, silver solder NEVER contains lead.  Lead and silver (and/or gold) are 
>never ever mixed.  The presence of lead, will eat holes in the silver (or gold) during 
>the soldering process, because it forms a weird alloy with the silver (or gold) at low 
>temperatures.

There are many solders containing both lead and silver, the most
common of which I think is a high-temperature eutectic solder
with around 97.5% Pb and 2.5% Ag.  (This is high temperature for
a solder, liquidus close to 600 F, but still well below silver
brazing temperatures.  I don't know of any silver brazing alloys
with lead in them.)

--

[email-masked]  is  Joshua Putnam / P.O. Box 13220 / Burton, WA 98013
                       "My other bike is a car."

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From: [email-masked] (Ken Young)
Date: Wed, 31 Jul 1996 19:38:09 GMT

[email-masked] (Abrasha) writes:
: As far as I know, silver solder NEVER contains lead.  Lead and silver (and/or gold) are 
: never ever mixed.  The presence of lead, will eat holes in the silver (or gold) during 
: the soldering process, because it forms a weird alloy with the silver (or gold) at low 
: temperatures.
: 
This is close, but not quite on.  The soldering action dissolves a small
amount of the material being soldered.  This can be a real problem
if you are soldering to silver plate or guilding.  The purpose of
silver solder is to have solder that already has enough silver dissolved
in it so it won't dissolve holes in silver plate or guilding.
Some silver solders contain lead, some don't.

Ken Young