[Steve]

It's true, Bob quit soldering, but many, many makers still solder. It seals the area between the guard and the tang and give a nice looking fillet around the front of the guard. I still use the same type of solder that Bob used when I was with him, in fact he had the Eutectic Rep. come to the shop when we started using 154-Cm, as it was difficult to solder. With their flux, it was a lot easier. Soldering SS is a difficult task, even with this solder and flux, as one must not overheat and there isn't a large window between being not hot enough and too hot. I do not use solder at all with bolsters, as there is a great big space there to get flux trapped underneath and that will cause problems over time. Pop Knife supply has some great, less expensive solder that flows a little better than what we used to use. I'm hearing of a better flux, also. There are as many opinions about soldering and not soldering as there are knifemakers out there.