[TheForge] brazing

Mon Nov 10 11:31:01 2003

Tom- I would concur on your message.
After several visits to Europe, I was convinced that brazing and soldering
techniques were employed more often that not as I looked for ANY evidence of
manufacturing technique and often found none. Some of this was on centuries
old work with exposed joinery. 
I'm using a brazed technique now on a small garden gate for my brother in
law (housewarming gift), It's based on the german 'figure 8' pass through
pattern which looks like a kid with a Spyra-graph made it. I lost count of
all the lap joints that will go into it but the end result is a seamless
line of spaghetti, uninteruppted by bird-poop welds.
Pictures soon.

Steve

-----Original Message-----
From: Thomas A. Troszak [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Monday, November 10, 2003 8:06 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: [TheForge] Re: TheForge digest, Vol 4 #742 - 9 msgs

> From: John Emmerling <[email protected]>
> Subject: [TheForge] goggles f/brazing question
> 
> Hi
> A year or so ago, Dave Brown made a comment thinking  he should be
> brazing more in some instances rather than welding. It made me think
> along similar lines as I make chandeliers and sconces et al, and there
> are times that the cleanliness of brazing supersedes even a tig weld.

Absolutely right, and you can go (at least) one step "cleaner".

I reconstructed the two chandeliers that now hang in the billiard room at
the Biltmore House here in Asheville. During the restoration, I had a good
opportunity to inspect the "craftsmanship of old" in these impressive
pieces.

There were many overlapping decorative/structural elements that appeared to
be "seamlessly" joined, and at first I was truly puzzled and impressed as to
how the work could have been done.

The answer came when the pieces of the chandelier went into the reverse
electrolysis tank. A soon as the paint and rust came off I was rather
shocked to see dozens of silvery-gray lines appear around the joints.

Upon close inspection, it turns out that the elements were forged
individually, then filed to a close fit and soft-soldered together, then the
resulting joints were finish-filed until all evidence of the joint was
invisible under a single coat of paint. Brilliant.

I think "Mr. Whatzamatter Cantuweld?" (he was mentioned in a different
message) needs a few lessons in "appropriate technology", he may be missing
out on some good stuff.

Tom Troszak

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