speaking of monsieur ryffranck,
i went up to canada for a long weekend this summer and was able to hang out in his shop to watch for a day and a half. he is really really fussy about his work, very concerned with delivering the highest quality miters and brazing. if anyone read the bicycle guide article some time ago, he talks about fitting up a miter, then pouring water in the joint and waiting 15 min. for it to finally leak out; he's wasn't joking, it was neat to watch him in action: he would miter the tube in question, say a top tube, and clamp the head tube steady in the jig, then coat the edge of the mitered top tube with chalk. he would then tap the mitered top tube against the head tube and see where it left chalk on the head tube. these were the high spots of the miter, so he would go back and file these areas of the top tube, re-chalk, re-tap, and so on back and forth until when the top tube was pressed against the heaad tube, it left one complete ring of chalk, which meant no high spots, and a perfect miter . . . .
chris root
apt. 207 44 brittany farms road new britain, ct 06053
root@student.uchc.edu