From: Cantiflex@aol.com
"For the record...a lot of the 'curly' seatstays were hand-bent on former, and thus differed slighlty. with 'rake'.
Ray Etherton Maldon, Essex U.K."
Always good to hear from folks who have a long history with a frame builder like Hetchins!
I've got a Magnum Opus from the Bob Jackson era (circa '87, I believe), and always wondered exactly how the stays were bent to shape. My instinct says they must have had some sort of tooling to get it right. Of course, this just leads to further questions; did they use the same curve on all frame sizes?, was the tooling handed down from earlier decades?, etc.
Previous info on Hetchins' technique for cutting lugs in groups indicates that they appreciated the efficiency provided by tooling, so that would seemingly support the theory of using tooling for bending the stays. On the other hand, a good craftsman can develop a great feel for performing tasks by hand, and to do it as fast as tooling might permit. Anyone have any evidence one way or the other?
thanks much,
Steve Kurt Peoria, IL (and now I'm wondering about some of those south London colloquialisms that were mentioned earlier... perhaps I need to learn some of those so I can ride my Hetchins and assorted Raleighs with a measure of authenticity?? :-) )