Green’s Dictionary of Slang

to flatter; thus soft sawdering n.

1838		T. Haliburton Clockmaker II 14: I gist soft sawder the women.
1842		Littell ‘The Rubber; or Matt’s Last Game’ Clay Minstrel (1844) 349: He patted Cass-men on the back [...] Soft-sawdered all mankind.
1853		T. Haliburton Sam Slick’s Wise Saws I 65: There’s all sorts of ways of soft sawderin’.
1857		Bolton Chron. 3 Oct. 7/1: Mr Alsop certainly did most ably try to salve and soft sawder the people.
1860		R.S. Surtees Plain or Ringlets? (1926) 62: The speechifying soft-sawdering abilities requisite for the [...] ball-room.
1866		C.H. Smith Bill Arp 159: Wouldn’t you think that as a matter of policy they would soft sodder us a little, and quit their slanderin?
1874		F.C. Burnand My Time 379: He thinks you’ll soft-sawder the others, that they’ll say ‘all serene,’ and have the old boy back.
1881		Bulletin (Sydney) 5 Mar. 4/4: A homoeopathic practitioner, who, by judiciously ‘soft-sawdering’ him, induced him to take, for three weeks, a couple of drachms of [...] bromide of potassium.
1903		Bulletin (Sydney) 10 Dec. 39/2: At the Quane’s Arrums Oi wurruked he same orrykle, an’ tould th’ ould woman Oi cud git gin chaper at the Skule av Arruts. Oi soft-sawdhered her too.