[CR][RE]Welding v Low Temp Welding

Thanks David, Harvey, Richard and Harris for kicking us off. We are considering here welding, low temp welding and bronze welding etc.

Let me focus on Holdsworth. They launch La Quelda in 1936 and shout welded. The 1938 catalogue has little on LQ but again says welded. The 1939 cat has 3 La Queldas, but it is really the one model, it is the finish that varies. La Q was the only non lugged Holdsworth pre 1947.

Bill Hurlow joined them in 1938, he was 17 in May 38, I don't think he had started frame building yet, but that is conjecture. He told me that pre war Holds imported 5/16 inch Bronzagene filler rod from the Continent, he said 5/16 was too thick and gave big fat welds.

The 1939 cat, La Quelda Flyer para 1: "...This steel weld thus unites with the steel tubing and fuses the complete frame into one homogeneous entity- that is "one piece". This quality is not present in machines subjected to the form of low temperature welding recently introduced and which should not be confused with Holdsworth "La Quelda" - the only steel welded bikes"

I gave you a link to this page, and ref to this in my last post, but the LQ flyer image is hard to read http://homepage.ntlworld.com/nkilgariff/HoldsModelPages/LaQuelda.htm I think this establishes that at least Holdsworth were high temp welding pre war, I suspect Grubb and others had too. It also shows that at the end of 1938 or early 1939, when the 1939 cat will have been prepared, somebody had recently introduced low temp welding, Harry and/or Claud?

Bronze welding is probably a red herring. Post ww2 we know Holds were fillet brazing, they call it bronze welding. The reason for adopting this I think is that in 1939 thier cat makes out their high temp method is superior to low temp welding. In 1946 or 47 they switch, but can hardly boast low temp welding. I think they shout Bronze welded as they would be too embarassed to say low temp welding, having belittled the method in 1939, but am fairly sure it will be the same thing.

Even post war Holds would steel weld some joins, but only if chrome plating was involved, as otherwise the chrome would not take. It seems to me that Holds were welding in 1939, but filet brazing post war.

The issue that seems to need clarification is what did Harry and Claud pioneer, and when. Norman Kilgariff filet brazed in (Glasgow, Scotland)

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