I agree with this. I’ve long found Pb-free solder to be very hard to use for hand soldering. It has a high melting point and it never seemed to flow well. Pb solder is of course easier to use with its low melting point and flowability, but I don’t like using it on account of it being more toxic. Silver solder has been a great middle-ground for me. While it has the high temp requirements of other Pb-free solder, it flows much more like lead.

I also can’t emphasize enough just how much of a difference an application flux makes. I spent years struggling with sloppy solder work and thinking I was just doomed to be bad at it. Using flux made a massive difference. I was no longer having to constantly clean up bad joints or deal with solder blobbing where I didn’t want it. Just recently I was able to effortlessly hand-solder a bunch of tiny SMD components onto a board. Something I never thought I’d be able to do.

When I was learning to solder I really wish the importance of flux use was taught to me. It would have saved me a lot of cursing and frustration.