A couple of years before he died (at the age of 99) Tommy Bartlett sent in a tip to Model Engineer regarding a pair of tongs he had made earlier in his life as an aid to silver soldering. The clamping ends were graphite rods and I seem to remember that the device had an 'over centre' arrangement so it was self holding. Intended to clamp small parts together whilst silver soldering, the graphite neither got fixed with the braze nor conducted too much heat away.
I cannot track down the details - does anyone else remember it or have the article that they could scan for me?
AWEM
ps he worked for Morganite Carbon for many years when they were in Battersea, hence the use of graphite!