stainless steel

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Hi everyone, new to the site here. I'm a retired policeman in Nanaimo BC Canada & as a hobbyist I'm doing some art with stainless steel cutlery. I was hoping someone on this site could give me some advice for the best method of welding or brazing stainless steel cutlery in my shop. Thanks in advance.
Reply:Hello and welcome. I was in Nanaimo back in 1983 or 84 IIRC for the start of the Bathtub Race. There are several methods that would work depending on what sort of look you are trying to achieve. My guess is that silver soldering or DC Tig will probably get you the most appealing results. DC tig would get you the nicest look with the smallest welds, but be more expensive than a small torch set that would let you silver solder..No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth! Ronald Reagan
Reply:miller 200dx
Reply:Hi DSW, thanks for the welcome and the quick reply. I have one of the 110 hobby wire feed welder with gas capability, can I use that as a TIG setup? But I was thinking about the silver soldering outfit as well.
Reply:No you can't do tig with a small wire feeder. It is possible to weld SS with mig, but the results don't look as nice usually. You will need SS wire and gas, usually trimix if you want to preserve the stainless qualities of the original. I was disapointed in the raw results I was getting with stainless in my mig and that was one of the reasons I took a tig class and picked up a tig machine. The raw welds look much nicer and there is less finishing to do to get the look the clients wanted.It is possible to do DC tig with some very simple add ons to any DC stick machine, but you'd probably get the best results with a dedicated tig with a pedal like the Maxstar 150. If you want to also do alum possibly in the future, get an AC/DC tig like the Syncrowave, Dynasty or TA 185.You might want to look around your area and see if one of the local tech schools or comunity colleges has a night class in welding and play with their machines. We get quite a number of art students in our classes who want to do metal sculpture, so take night classes at one of our local tech schools. It's split sort of 30/30/40 between those who want to learn O/A (usually to do jewlery work), Mig (rough sculpture), and Tig (fine sculpture). Most instructors are quite keen on helping students who have their own projects once they get past a certain learning point and have the basics down..No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth! Ronald Reagan
Reply:thanks DSW, sounds like you can picture what I'm trying to do here. The idea of night classes is a good one to get a good idea of which setup will be best. I'll likely, in the interim go with the silver solder setup and move toward TIG from there. Thanks again.