In a message dated 3/25/2004 7:46:52 PM Eastern Standard Time, Jon3084@aol.com writes:
<< Could you expand on that Paramount snip? What years? Waterford also? What % silver? >>
I meant just "Chicago produced" Paramounts (which we now know that not all were made in Chicago.) Schwinn advertised and promoted the fact that they were silver brazed but if you look, especially the chainstay and seat stay bridges, you know that the large buildup of brazing material at those joints would exclude high silver content brazing material. In fact, the filet build up looks just like that of brass. Higher percentage silver material would tend to not build up like that...
I don't know what percentage silver Schwinn used, but I would guess that it would have to be in the 10-20% range. If you looking at characteristics charts for compounds with that percentage silver, the heat range is not far off that of regular brass. So the "advantages" (low temp, less distressing of steel micro structure, etc.) of having silver content are minimal.
It would be neat to ask Richard Schwinn when he is at the Cirque exactly which brazing materials were used on Waterford Paramounts and then on the 753 bikes and now on the newer bikes. I think Waterford might be using brass now but we shall find out!
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