20 some years ago when we started making the frames for our Ukrainian transportation bicycles ourselves, I brazed the kickstand plate on our prototype frame with 56% silver. I thought this would make putting them on easier for someone without a lot of brazing experience. Making these frames was a training ground for some of my students after taking a class. The kickstand on this bicycle we made for testing broke off. A kickstand has a lot of leverage stressing the joint. The plate was brazed on properly with a nice silver fillet on each side of the plate where it connected to both chain stays. I switched of course to doing the plates with brass and we never had any trouble since then. The moral of the story was that in a circumstance like a kickstand plate, brass is stronger than 56% silver. I"d also add there are not many other joints on a frame similar to a kickstand plate. Wouldn't worry a second about a silver fillet failing on a main triangle.

Andy's fork mishap where he blew the top plate off of the fork blade while attaching the top decoration after filing his vent hole is another illustration of silver not making as strong a fillet as brass. Now in this situation I don't think the silver will fail under normal use. In fact I'll still have students braze them with silver because silver is still strong enough for that purpose. Keep in mind that the melting point of bronze is about 400º hotter than silver so that is going to have a negative impact too. For beginners, it is easy to go over the temperature window of brass causing real damage to the steel where going over the same amount with silver doesn't have as negative an impact.