One of my best experiences when I was on my way home from learning to build at Ellis Briggs in 1975 was my stop to see the framebuilder at F.W. Evans in the basement of the retail store. He took time to show me a lot of building tricks and explain what worked well for him. I remember him telling me that he wouldn't have shared this information to another British builder who could possibly be a competitor but didn't mind telling me since I was going back to the states. I have a number of pictures of his jig as well as other gadgets. My favorite was his braze on bit holder. It's really clever and I copied it for my own use. The students in my just finished framebuilding class made the same observation and said, "that's a really clever little holder you have there" and I immediately gave credit to it's inventor. My 1975 picture didn't turn out well so the next year, when my parents went to England, they got a better picture of it for me.
His bench was interesting because it had hand written slogans written in black against the white wall such as "there are none so fallible as the experts". He had an old sewing machine modified to file lugs. The needle of the machine accepted needle files. He had a round steel dowel that the lug could rest on while the sewing machine did it's work. Like a lot of framebuilders of that era, his tools were hand made and not machine made, well thought out but not perfectly precise.
I learned more in my afternoon with him than with many of the other good British builders. He left a lasting impression with me that he was a really really smart man. Nothing about his appearance gave a clue to this.
These pictures need to be scanned and put on the web. That isn't something I have the time or ability to do but I'm sure someone on this list could. I've been looking for plastic protectors for 3X5 prints without success. Everything is 4X6 now. Age hasn't improved their appearance. Unfortunately those that weren't Kodak look brown while the Kodak ones look new. I'll have to see if I saved the negatives.
Doug Fattic
Niles, Michigan