A very common solder.
| oz. | dwts. | grs. | |
| Fine silver | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Composition | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| White arsenic | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 3 | 0 | 0 |
The solders here given will be found amply sufficient to select from, for every operation of the silversmith, and will answer the several purposes for which they have been described. When tin and arsenic are employed in the composition of solder, either together or separately, they should be withheld until the more infusible metals with which they are to be united have become melted; the tin or tinsel should then be added, and when this is well melted with the mass, fling on the top the arsenic, let it melt, stir it well together, and pour it out quickly into an ingot mould already prepared for its reception.
When silver and brass, or silver and composition, alone form the component parts of the solder, these metals may be put into the melting-pot together, well fused, stirred, and poured out as before.
Solders into which volatile metals enter, upon repeated meltings, become hard, brittle, and drossy, and are therefore not so good as when the metal has received only one melting; it is for this reason that we have always preferred to manufacture our solders from metals which have not been melted before, or from those which have gone through the process as few a number of times as possible.
The mode of soldering gold and silver is as follows: Take the solder and roll it out thin between the flattening rollers, or file it into dust, according to the kind of work in hand. If filed into dust, it is all the better if done very fine; and if reduced to a flat state, which should be tolerably thin, cut it into little bits, or pallions, which may easily be performed with a pair of hand-shears, length-ways and afterwards cross-ways. When this is done, take the work which is to be soldered, join it together by means of fine binding-wire (very thin iron wire), or lay it upon the pumice so that the joinings can come close together, and will not be liable to move during the process; wet the joinings with a solution of borax and water, mixed into a thick paste, applying it with a small camel-hair pencil; then lay the bits or pallions of solder upon the parts to be united, and having placed the article upon some suitable object, take your blowing instrument ([Fig. 16]) and blow with it, through a gas-jet, a keen flame upon the solder in order to melt it; this will render the unification of the parts complete and compact.
Fig. 16. Blowpipes.