Catching fire

[SandieB]

Using a small handheld torch I've managed to solder small pieces with medium and easy solder. I've been trying paste solder, the hard kind, and haven't managed to make it work. Though I'm heating the metal rather than the solder directly, it quickly catches fire. I've look at threads here and trawled the net, but though there are lots of instructions about using paste solder, this doesn't seem to be mentioned. Has anyone else had that problem?

[Dennis]

Using paste solder requires is own learning curve. But if treated like any other silver solder, it does briefly catch fire with a smoky flame, while the binder burns away. Then it flows with a metallic flash as always.

My main objection to it is the difficulty in judging how much to use, particularly when it is sandwiched between two flat pieces of metal. Over- dispensing can cause a messy result. For some members it is a favourite. Dennis.

[Goldsmith]

I have been a trade trained goldsmith for the past 56 years and can honestly say that I have never used or wanted to use paste solder. I like to see the exact amount of solder that intend using to solder an article. I also only use a standard cheap borax cone in a borax plate for flux. Before I worked for myself I worked in trade workshops for 24 years and can honestly say that no one ever used paste solders.

James
James Miller FIPG

[SandieB]

Thank you both very much for your replies. I definitely prefer strip solder and borax but thought I should give paste a try. I didn't realise that if it caught fire that wasn't a disaster. James, I noticed in a thread of yours that you mention a book you were writing. Has it been published?

[Goldsmith]

Thank you both very much for your replies. I definitely prefer strip solder and borax but thought I should give paste a try. I didn't realise that if it caught fire that wasn't a disaster. James, I noticed in a thread of yours that you mention a book you were writing. Has it been published?

No Sandie, I have been a bit distracted recently so it is still in progress.

[Paul Kay]

My father, who mostly worked with silver when he could, also worked extensively for nigh on 50 years as a trade outworker producing gilding metal costume jewellery. For the gilding metal he always used a home-made solder paste (which was also used by his mother, my grandmother who also worked as a trade outworker into her 80s, but that's a much longer story) Actually when I say my father used it, it was my mother who 'charged' most of the work pieces with dabs of the paste ready for my father to join items or add joints and catches. He, my father, would most often use sheet solder with silver, but occasionally a home made silver based paste if the task warranted it. Personally I use hard silver solder or paste solder depending on ease of use in a given situation, and find paste solder easy to judge and use, but maybe it's in my blood. :)

[LydiaNiz]

I like paste solder for earring posts or veeeery dinky fiddly bits/chains, but I only use table top torches.
Having said that, I'm working on an two colour 18ct pendant, where the one colour is in tiny fragments, and am sweat soldering it using tiny, rolled-down-to-almost-nothing pallions.
I've seen it catch when I first tried it. Definitely likely to be a case of heating it too directly. Warm the whole piece up thoroughly first before turning your attention to the part being soldered and hopefully you should be ok.