>From: Chuck Schmidt <chuckschmidt@earthlink.net>
>
>I believe the very fine line style of pin striping on old bikes is done
>
>with a ruling pen and not a brush. Saw it done...
>
>Chuck "ex-maestro of ruling pen" Schmidt
Looking at various bikes and talking to old makers, there are different techniques for applying pin striping. It seems the French used a long "striping brush". If you are skilled, this allows for very fast work. And you can see the speed on some old Herse bikes - it's lunch time, let's get this one done before....
For production bikes, many factories had frames they placed over the bike frame, which guided the hands of the (usually female) pinstripers.
I have tried the brush technique, but you need to be born to do it. I am not! Just when I think my old practice frame looks fine, I step back a foot, and realize it does not.
>I saw a fellow had applied pin stripping to a vintage bike that looked nice.
>He said it was applied with a special roller paint kit for this purpose.
>This is not a house paint roller; its a little wheel gadget that paints thin
>line; crooked or straight.
>
>I'll not sure what a ruler pin is but that might be integrated in the roller
>gadget.
>Yours in Cycling,
>
>Gilbert Anderson
>
The Jack Taylors used the roller gadget. I have used that, and it isn't easy to do. The paint doesn't always flow correctly, you need to move at exactly the right speed, etc. Also, if you aren't very fast, the paint dries, so when you restart the roller, you get paint only after about 1/2 turn of the wheel. The solution here is to put masking tape at the beginning of the stripe, then start the stripe on there (so you get that 1/2 turn out of the way), and roll onto the tube where you want to start the stripe.
The difference between these two techniques is that the brush moves faster, so the lines are straighter in the short run, but not always parallel to the tube edges. Also, they vary a bit in width. The roller gadget includes a guide (various L-shaped metal rods that slide along the tube), so wobbles are short, but the lines generally are parallel to the tube edges. And because the roller is metal, the lines are always exactly the same width. (Of course, the guide is hard to use once you get to braze-ons, etc., where it gets stuck!)
Motorbike restorers mask the stripes, but that looks OK only for wider stripes than those found on bicycles.
Overall, pin striping is what lets down many restorations. I haven't seen a good one yet, but they are rumored to be out there!
"A kingdom for a good pinstriper" (preferably local to Seattle) -- Jan Heine, Seattle Editor/Publisher Vintage Bicycle Quarterly c/o Il Vecchio Bicycles 140 Lakeside Ave, Ste. C Seattle WA 98122 http://www.vintagebicyclepress.com