I don’t want to be too much of a nit-picker, but I think bits of cut
solder are “paillons” [the “s” is an Englishism], not “pallions,” as
I have seen it spelled recently in more than one book. My old French
dictionary defines “paillon” as, among other things, “wisp of straw,
bit of solder.” Oppi Untracht (p. 395) notes that “paillons” comes
from French paille, “spangle”).
All the best,
Judy Bjorkman