I've just been discussong silver soldering small detail parts with a friend and we got on to discussing small, controllable sources of heat which wouldn't melt the work pieces. I can remember having something called a Valtock(sp?) blowlamp many years ago which used meths and never worked all that well, but I wonder what the modern equivalent is these days.
I think I also remember jewellers using something like a small blowpipe and creating a flame by blowing through a soft flame from a meths wick, but can't find any details on the 'Net.
Jim.