[CR]Frame Builders

(Example: History)

Date: Wed, 03 Jul 2002 09:57:02 +1000
To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
From: "Geoff Duke" <G.Duke@civag.unimelb.edu.au>
Subject: [CR]Frame Builders

Hi List members, I am a still learning frame builder in Australia.I envy you guys who actually have other people to talk to and compare your work with.Australia is a very small market spread over a very large continent and the number of custom builders in any material is very small and shrinking.To make things even worse there is a tendency for them to keep things pretty close to their chests (apologies to any Australian builders who might be reading this and take offence, but that has been my experience).I have been a fitter and turner/toolmaker for 20 years and so some things are second nature to me.I started building by getting hold of Tim Paterek's frame-building handbook and after reading it and building a few jigs, began to teach myself.I am still learning and am firmly of the belief that I will continue to learn until I build my last frame.I guess that because I don't really see how this could ever be a full time existence for me there is a certain freedom to do things at my own pace and not to rush things and not to have to compromise my idea of what the finished product should be.I have looked at web pages of many of the frame builders on this list and been inspired to continue a traditional process that flies in the face of the commercial world that we all inhabit.It would be nice to have a mentor but in the absence of one, I hope enough people continue to desire well made, lugged steel frames so I can continue to learn. Geoff Duke To quote from E.F.Shumacker "Small is Beautiful",