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My understanding (albeit very limited) was that solder was sold back then. It was applied with irons heated in a fire. I also suspect rosin (a flux) core lead solder may have been availible then.
I imagine the lead sold for casting bullets could be used to make solder joints. If you look at the kinds of stuff sold at the trading posts back then, I imagine you would find solid fluxing agents -- borax maybe. A fair number of chemicals were sold for metal processing and prospecting -- things like mercury. I have seen bullets cast at museums and a powder fluxing agent was added to the ingots right before full melt.
Fusing may also have been done. It is still done today in Africa to produce granulated surfaces and filagree work. It requires exquist control, which many difernet ethnic groups have accomplished under less technically advanced conditions. There may have been some casting too. I know, in that era, much of the Navajo stuff was cast to avoid the problems of soldering.
This is one bit of history I personally avoid. Lead solders produce lead fumes. I don't like breathing lead and I like children breathing lead or being around lead filings even less. Adults do not suffer the magnitude of brain damage children do from lead.
Anyway, that is my two cents on soldering in the old days.
Sincerely,
OLChemist
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