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Why braze lifting hooks before use?

Cannonmn

Stainless
Joined
Jun 25, 2016
I got six identical hooks as shown from a surplus dealer. They are about 8" long and each is serialized and coated on the load-contact surface with manual brazing. Hooks made by B.R.F., a maker of meat trucks, hooks, etc. Each hook marked "Cap. 500 lbs."

Why was the brazing necessary? All the hooks have it and are new and unused.

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I have no idea. Just a guess would be to keep the raw steel from touching the meat. If the steel did touch the meat, the moisture would cause it to rust and contaminate the meat.
 
They were trying to keep from marring whatever they were lifting. Just like bronze tipped pry bars or bronze hammers.
 
Odd, actually. The labour-component in manual brazing.

All-Bronze flesh hooks date from ..ta da.. the "Bronze Age", of course.

In modern times, outfits such as K.C. Jones plating do bronze-all-over for non-sparking rigging gear, and they do a LOT of it.

Seems to me plating would be cheaper than brazing for something used in the sort of quantities food processors need as well.

Or starting with a Stainless or even Monel alloy at the outset. Both exist, and have for ages.

This looks to me like a 'field expedient' response to meet a local need. It may not have been seen as a success, even so.

Rather than ponder how they came into being, the better question might be whether they are fit for the OP's PRESENT purpose?
 
I don't think those were meat hooks. Wrong shape, they aren't pointed, and to many crevasses to keep clean. I have old Armor and Swift hooks and they are heavily tin plated for rust resistance.

It is possible they were plating hooks and needed the added conductivity of the bronze.
 
the added conductivity of braze deposit over steel is inconsequential. we can rule that out as even remotely worth the labor. if you look up the electrical conductivity of, say, 655 SiBr, it is about the same as steel.

yup, I didn't believe it either.

just because it is yellow, doesn't mean it's more conductive.

truth is who the #$@%$^ knows! people do strange things...
 
the added conductivity of braze deposit over steel is inconsequential. we can rule that out as even remotely worth the labor. if you look up the electrical conductivity of, say, 655 SiBr, it is about the same as steel.

yup, I didn't believe it either.

just because it is yellow, doesn't mean it's more conductive.

truth is who the #$@%$^ knows! people do strange things...

I didn't know that about the conductivity. But if you put a little flash rust on the steel it really changes things. I guess next time I need connectivity I'll try surfacing it with pure copper rather than bronze.
 








 
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