It is my understanding that tying & soldering was first done on wheels with wooden rims, due to difficulties in getting the spoke tension tight. The loose spokes would rub against each other, causing noise and wear. I have an early 1890's ladies' lightweight in original condition, and it has very light gage spokes (T&S, of course) laced to wooden rims. I have only done it once (it was on a pair of wheels that I built with wooden sewup rims), and I was surprised how little extra time it took. Definitely worth the mojo factor.
BTW, wooden rims have much mojo, but they work best on track bikes without rim brakes. I understand there used to be special "breadloaf" brake shoes for wooden rims. I can tell you that Campy pads work lousy on them. You can definitely tell the ride difference between aluminum and wood rims, but anyone who says that he can tell the difference between the ride of an ash rim and a maple rim in one of those famous blindfold tests is a bald-faced liar. I just tried it and just ended up in a thornbush.
Steve Barner, Wooden Bike & Ski Touring Center, Bolton, Vermont.
<--snip--> Trying and soldering does have some benefits. I believe that this is particular helpful in a wheel low a small number of spokes, say 24. Particularly in a "straight on" impact, say a track rider riding over another competitor. The wheel seems less likely to collapse completely. Bend yes, but stay rideable enough to get the rider off the track. This is a useful property when doing grass track racing as it is not unheard of for tracks to have "uneven" surfaces. Otherwise know as "****dy great big holes".
T&S does have a place on a "Classic Bike" as the bikes we call classics were often T&S, even if it was of little benefit.
Regards
Martin Coopland