Stevan Thomas writes:
> You build a curved blade fork one of two ways: either start with
> curved blades (and hope they're the same), jig it up, braze, OR start with
> straight blades, braze, bend (and hope they bend the same). Adjust as
> necessary for
> alignment.
>
Ah but there are yet more tricks. In the shop of that noted Italian-American framebuilder of 30 years experience, Guillelmo Davidsoni, we first braze the crown to the blades and steerer in a miraculous inside-out manner than allows us to pull the brass from the inside out until it just makes a nice edge at the lug edge,without splattering all over requiring much cleanup. Then we bend the blades on a dual bending mandrel so they are exactly the same (assuming they were exactly the same to start with of course). Then we cut off the bottom ends in a special patent Davidsoni jig that allows them to be cut off square and at the same length, for the insertion of plug-type investment cast dropouts, and voila! Perfectly bent forks that have a nice gentle curve all the way to the end, with no kinks from the holder at the end, because you cut that part off. My pet peeve has always been those buttugly forks that do all their bending in the middle and have a 3 inch straight section at the bottom, or else are curved after brazing in the dropouts and so have the telltale little kink. And I also don't care for those lazy-ass straight forks. They just don't look right, even if Ernesto will not build them any other way ever again because it is the perfect design. Give me the gay ones any day.
A little trade secret/Christmas present for you all who are so socially deprived that this is how you spend Christmas!
cheers and ho-ho-ho
Bob Freeman
Seattle