Who is a grumpy boy then? I bought a small propane torch which I was told, and the picture on the box confirms, that it would have enough heat for hard soldering, in a pig's ear! So back to the old fall back of soft solder..

...so out to the 'dirty' workshop where there is a vice big enough to hold the ensemble and with the biggest electric iron I have the solder flowed and the joins were made.

Unfortunately to get good heat transfer with soft solder it is necessary to put a little pool of solder where the iron contacts which later has to be cleaned off and with solder on the surface there is no prospect of doing the original intended finish which was a black oxide (gun 'blueing'), oh well, I am sure the lacquer will look very nice!
... just enough time left in the day to do a trial assembly on a bit of old fibre board.