Why can’t you hard solder it? Is it already lead soldered together?
If the nickle plating is an issue send it to a good plater and have
it stripped off first.
Before I was a gold and platinum smith, I used to be a liturgical
silversmith and did a LOT of silver hollow ware and flat ware repair
and re plating. Still do a bit on old and rare pieces because most
folks won’t touch it. The most recent piece I repaired was a pair of
over 200 year old silver drinking cups that were badly repaired with
glue, foil, and yes paper clips. No pressure:-) When I repaired silver
plated goods, yes I would use soft solder because the feet, finials,
handles and spouts were cast out of low temp pot metal.
I used Tix solder and then silver plate it afterwards.
On sterling silver. NEVER. I had a chalice that I made nearly
destroyed by a hack repair man who lead soldered on it after it was
dropped and part was broken off. I had to disassemble the whole
thing, scrape the lead solder off, then reassemble with silver
solder.
Once a piece of silver or gold is lead soldered you can never go
back and use higher temp solder on it unless it is completely
decontaminated. It likes to alloy /eat into the silver or gold. It is
a much weaker bond than hard solder as well.
Lead soldering on precious metals is akin to gluing stones in place.
It must be avoided at all costs.
I’d like to hear from Jeffrey Herman on this. He is the REAL expert
on silver restoration.
Have fun and make lots of Jewelry.
Jo Haemer
timothywgreen.com