RE: http://www.wooljersey.com/
>> I think it is restorable.
My experience with metal in building fires is not extensive, but not nonexis tant either (our house burned down when I was eight, plus I've picked thru q uite a few fire sites since then when I worked in construction). I know for a fact that steel's properties can be drastically and unpredictably altered by a fire... it is affected by both the temperature the fire heats it to an d the speed at which it is cooled... if it gets doused by fire hoses it will be a totally different animal than the same steel that cooled under a heap of hot ashes. Sometimes it'll be brittle enough to snap in your hands, othe r times it'll be as bendable as soft copper tubing.
To trust steel as thin as the stuff in a high-grade bike frame to carry your weight after it's been thru this kind of fire is just nuts.
Bob Hovey
Columbus, GA USA
http://bhovey.com/