[TheForge] Brazing vs welding

[terry l. ridder]

hello;

thank you for the brazing book url.

i thought i share a visit i had with an old timer here.
he runs the local welding & repair shop. i asked him how long he had
been welding and he related the story that he started blacksmithing in
1936. told me about the what he worked on and what he had learned from
the local 'master' blacksmith. while i was there he was working on
repairing a brass statue/sculptor. it was in pieces on his metal welding
table. i asked him how he was going to repair it. he asked how much time
i had to spend and i told him i was in no hurry. the figurine was hollow
so he was using clay to hold the pieces in place while he repaired it.
i asked him what he used to 'weld' the pieces back together. he said tin
foil. i asked him if he meant aluminum foil and he said no tin foil. he
took out a small piece of foil that was about as thick aluminum foil. he
would trim it so that the clay would just hold it in place between the
two pieces to be 'welded' together. he would then brush both sides with
flux and place it on the base piece and position the loose piece so that
the fluxed tin foil is between the broken joint. he would then take his
oxy-acetylene torch and 'brush' the joint with a flame until the fluxed
tin foil melted. he would brush/wipe the joint with brass wool ( like
very fine steel wool but made of brass ). after he was done i could
barely see the joint. i watched as he continued on with the repairs. he
continued positioning the fluxed tin foil on the broken joints which
needed 'welding'. as he worked he would add more clay to hold the
pieces. after he was done and the brass figurine had cooled he started
to remove the clay from the bottom. once he removed the clay he heated
the figurine internally just enough to melt the fluxed tin foil. after
that he washed it to remove any flux and weld release. to prevent the
fluxed tin foil remove 'sticking' in places it should not be he had
'painted' each piece with 'weld release'. unless you had seen the
original pieces you would never had known that the brass figurine had
been broken at all. i was truely in awe of this man. he would talk to
the figurine and mutter to himself as he worked. it was an afternoon
well spent.

On Thu, 14 Nov 2002, Dave Brown wrote:

dave> 
dave> I've been looking around and reading and have started to think that maybe 
dave> I'm welding too often (forge and/or MIG and/or stick) and maybe should do 
dave> more brazing in certain applications.  I found one good site on line that 
dave> tells a lot about brazing, it's pros and cons.  It is The Brazing Book 
dave> online and can be found at 
dave> http://www.handyharmancanada.com/TheBrazingBook/contents.htm#Index
dave> 
dave> There seems to be a lot more versatility and strength to brazing than I 
dave> thought.  I think this online book on brazing is gonna be worth a little 
dave> more reading/browsing.
dave> 
dave> Anyone have any thoughts or experience to share on brazing in the forge?
dave> 
dave> 
dave> Dave Brown
dave> 

-- 
Terry L. Ridder ><>