Originally Posted by
gugie
I've replaced steerers on a few forks. It's a pain in the rear, and the next time I do it the cost will be twice what I've done in the past! I don't heat up the fork crown to remove it, as doing so might (probably?) detach the fork blades as well. It's cut, drill, and file, all by hand. New steerer gets silver brazed in, almost all vintage production bikes have fork blades that are bronze brazed, which melts at a signficantly higher temperature than silver based rod, avoiding the fork blade issue. I wouldn't reuse the old steerer, cost of a new one is insignficant compared to the labor cost.
This means that fork better be something special, otherwise you're better off just getting a new replacement fork.
Well, this one will not need heating to remove! The crown with legs attached is trying to fall off of the steerer tube! I managed to stop it from causing a shower of headset bearing balls! I was only trying to get the stem to come loose from the steer tube!
If the fork blades are brass-brazed, you could reattach the steerer with silver braze, right? Or would the thermal mass of the crown plus blades make sure the crown got super hot?