cutting cooksons silver solder
Due to machine manufacturing, just about all bullion dealers no longer make silver solder in oblong pallions, like they do gold, because most of thier customers feed it into a machine.
It now comes in long thin strips, which is quite a thick 'sheet' thickness, compared to gold pallion solder. Also the strips width seems to be different for easy med and hard solder, from between 3mm to 5mm wide (ish!).
therefore, when you buy it, you need to cut it into managable lengths, of about 4 inches, possibly with a jewellers saw, or 'tin snips' type solder shears.
Then, you pass these through a rolling mill (if you have one) or hammer them, to make them the same thickness as normal (gold) pallion solder.
Then it is best to cut the pallions with solder shears (not end cutters) by first cutting down the sheet to get a inch long very thin strip, of a bout 1mm and bending it away from the sheet. Then you snip away at this, shaving off tiny pieces and place a finger over the end to steady and catch the pieces.
It takes a little practice, but you find your pallions get smaller, and you get quicker, till your able to cut pieces you can barely see!
silver oxidises easily, so it can be useful to lightly file the stock strip before you make the first cut into your solder stock length, (just over the bit your going to be cutting into) with a fine, needle type file, which guarantees the solder will flow.