Several years ago, I built a cross section model. It had a mast and I created the deadeyes and chain plates for it, rigged the shrouds, and then tied the ratlines. All well and fine until I noticed that the shrouds had, in a couple of places, gone a bit slack. How did that happen? I looked carefully and saw that several of my soldered joints in the chain plates and broken and the tension was now off. ARRRGGHHH!!!

Why did those joints break? They were soft soldered using a soldering iron. Once they were tugged on a bit to get the shrouds properly tensioned, a few of those chain plates parted and left me with sloppy looking shrouds. I had been warned. Fellow ship modeler Bob Craig had been at me for a while to try silver soldering. He had sent me pictures of his work with the torch and it was one of those things I said I would learn. Eventually. Well, the experience with the sloppy shrouds did it. No more broken joints for me. I received a soldering torch as a Christmas gift and I put the lessons I had learned to work. It took a bit of practice and some further advice, but I got into the habit of making reasonably passable looking joints. The main thing was that the joints were now completely solid. Although I am by no means an expert, I can solder what I need for a ship model and the model’s finished appearance and longevity are that much better for my having learned a bit about this particular skill. I am still learning and challenging myself with more complicated soldering projects.

Silver soldering, also known as hard soldering, is not difficult to learn. One must put in some practice to get over a small learning curve, but it is not difficult. It is not expensive either. For about $40-50, you can buy the torch and enough solder to last you several years. Silver soldering can be used in any number of applications in ship modeling. Hooks, shackles, eyebolts, chain plates, anchors, yard trusses, depending on the era and type of ship, the list could go on a bit.

My soldering torch came from Micromark. My soldering paste came from Stan Rubensteins Associates. They are a jeweller's supply house, but any good jeweller's supply house will have solder. Make sure you get the kind that is cadmium free. Cadmium is bad for you so avoid it. Aside from a pencil style torch and pre fluxed soldering paste, you need something to hold the work while you are soldering it. I use a cheap pair of cross locking tweezers. You can also use haemostats. For trimming the metal, you can use a $2 pair of end nippers or electrician’s dikes. For bending the metal, there are the trusty needle nosed pliers. To get better tools, you can spend a bit more money, but these will do. For cleaning up the metal, I use two sets of files, one a set of larger 7” long files, and then the smaller 4” jeweller's files. These I use on metal and wood for all sorts of shaping.

General tools for Silver Soldering

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