I have all kinds of brazing torches and tips so my framebuilding class students can try out various ones to see what they like best. When I brazed the blades to the crown, I used my Uniweld 71 torch handle that had a Victor UN-J mixer elbow. It is the biggest and lightest airline torch handle I have. The challenge of brazing a box crown is getting silver penetration on the inside socket walls. That area is not reachable with a flame. For this reason, it is better for those with less skill to use a full slopping crown because the inside socket walls are accessible. What is necessary with a box crown is to apply soaking heat from a distance with a bigger flame. In this case I chose a G-tec #1 tip. This is a multi-port tip that provides a longer sharp center flame. It is similar to a rosebud except the center flame. I lit a G-tec #0 but it was too much like a rosebud with the center flame being barely longer than the side flames. I use the sharp center flame to clean the shorelines after the silver has been applied. That skill is one of the hardest for my students to learn and in fact some of them never do.

After the crown to blades braze was finished and cooled, I switched to a Victor TEN-2 tip to braze on the decorations. First I had to file off the outside tip of the crown so its width matched the stem width of the fancy bit. I used 50N silver for this braze because it works better with stainless. I ordered the decoration with a 2mm thickness so it is easier to braze and not that hard to file down to the thickness of the crown socket. Exceptional care had to be used to add just the right amount of silver because there is no place to take it if I added too much.



After brazing on the appliqué, I filed it to the same thickness as the crown. Later I will start the process of polishing it to a bright finish.