The way I see it from a Brit perspective would be like this. Back in the
halcyon years of British frame building you had two choices the small
artisan one man frame maker aka F.W.Evans, Frank Lipscombe, Harry
Ferris or F.H.Scott or the big boys such as Claud Butler's,
Paris/Rensch, GA and Bates. These larger concerns employed many builders
all at one time mostly producing on piece rate with tight quality
control in place.
Through Clauds factory passed the Ephgrave twins, George Stratton,
Bill Philbrook, Stuart Purvis, Fred Pratt, Bill Hurlow and Bill Grey.
Similarly at Rensch's Harry himself, Tom Board, Clive Parker, Dusty
Miller and Jack Jones.
At Bates I am not so well up on but Titch Morris and Jimmy Long were
both there, the former being the foreman builder for some years.
Now on a purely personal basis I would rather have a frame built by one
of the big boys or someone who was time served (apprenticed) in these
factories. Why because they were producing everything to tight deadlines
and working very fast. they had to be good to earn on piece rate and get
it by the quality control. Practice makes perfect as they say and they
got
better on every frame they made. It is probably a fact that when someone
like Bill Philbrook was at Clauds he was making five frames a week on
average.
I am in no way decrying the efforts of small one man band artisan
builders. My best cycling mate Tony Oliver is a marvelous advert for a
self taught maker.
I am positive the Worldwide fascination and collecting boom in British
made frames is due to their superior ride and build quality possibly
due to the fact that the most desirable were probably made by
apprentice served craftsmen from our larger makers.
Finally its all about personal choice and just be thankful that you live
in the USA and you can get a decent frame made easily by your numerous
builders. We are not so fortunate in the UK and sadly I would be hard
pressed to recommend a UK builder nowadays
especially in my native London.
--
Michael Francis Butler
michaelbutler@fastmail.fm