joel metz wrote
>
>yes, but what about jack taylors! norman is reasonably known for
>*not* filing his filets! (believe it or not - but thats what
>friends who have apprenticed in the taylor works tell me! ) :)
I have seen enough lugless Taylors with the paint off to tell you for sure that they were only minimally filed or not at all. I have also known several other classic and modern builders who developed their fillet brazing skill to the degree that no filing was needed.
Yes, when I visited them, Jack told this story (read it with an English accent for best effect): 'Your American By-cycling Magazine said we didn't file our joints well enough... We never have filed our joints!" (Sorry if you've heard that from me before. It is one of my favorites.)
I watched him braze up a frame. He was darn good. As was Mark Bulgier who worked for us for many years brazing Davidsons. I have a very nice 35 lb steel tandem that he made for me in 1991. You can usually spot a badly brazed fillet by how much the steel around the fillet was undercut from over-filing.
Bob Freeman
Seattle