It's also a necessary skill in a lot of technical hobbies. Modular synthesis by means of DIY modules, the whole mechanical keyboard thing, electric guitar maintenance...
Also stuff like reflow solder is/can still be done by hand! Its a common thing to do if you need to touch up or modify a PCB and dont want to reflow the whole thing/damage any components
I'm not sure. Back in the day we avoided SMD like the plague and it had a reputation of being unapproachable. THT parts were highly sought after and I would even say that a good deal of the success of AVR was because they offered THT versions of their µs long after most others had stopped. Some of us even engaged in the uphill battle of lead-free soldering only to be disillusioned.
We thought hand soldering will die with THT but it didn't.
I see a young generation that has mostly overcome these hurdles. With their young steady hands, sharp eyes, high-lead solder, small temperature controlled irons and other modern equipment they just go about. I envy them.
For what it's worth, I took the time to learn leadless soldering specifically so that I could teach my kids. I like to introduce them to safe hobbies (that why they all went skydiving before their 10th birthday, too).
This allows burning away and tinning enameled wire with the soldering tip.
Though there are only two lead-free solders that qualify. I use the Felder Ultra-Clear EL Sn100Ni+. The other one is the Amasan BF32-3.
At what temperatures you solder mentioned leadfree?
The correct tip temperature for any hand soldering operation is the lowest temperature that will allow the joint to be completed in two to five seconds. In practice, that depends on a host of variables - the composition of the solder alloy, the properties and calibration of your iron, the thermal mass of the joint etc. A usual rule of thumb is the melting point of the solder plus 150°C, but your mileage will vary.
Metcal have a great big doc on tip care that covers this.
As for “high lead solder” - you won’t buy it in Europe. We had to learn using lead free for rework and you know what - it’s not much different, assuming you have high quality equipment.
That's bollocks. You can buy leaded solder in Europe just fine. You only need to worry about lead-free if you want to sell a commercial product.
But thanks for letting me know, maybe it was just a local problem of the particular store, but a EU policy.
I've never had any trouble using lead-free solder for through-hole or SMT (and I don't have any expensive or sophisticated equipment).
I guess the real driver towards hobbyists using SMD is cheap and fast PCB design. You can’t really do stripboard or wire wrap with SMD packages.
Let me tell you that I'm holding up the flag. Very poorly and with shaky hands, but I'm trying to hold it up... :-D