Curt Goodrich wrote:
>
(snip)
> As a framebuilder, I
> see file marks as a blemish that shouldn't be there. When the frame was
> built isn't relevant. Why make excuses? This of course needs to be kept in
> perspective of production numbers and cost but when looking at top or near
> top shelf frames I see no reason to make excuses for sloppy work. We
> certainly don't do this for good work. We don't look at a nicely crafted
> Masi and say "Sure it's nice but times were different then."
A Cinelli example and my opinion:
Virtually all the 1960s Cinelli SCs I have seen are very nicely filed, VERY nicely filed, everywhere but the underside of the bottom bracket shell. There you'll see some very prominent bastard file marks (gouges?). Obviously both the builder of the frame and Cino Cinelli didn't feel this area was cosmetically important enough to finish to the same degree of refinement that the rest of the frame was finished.
Today, of course, we expect every millimeter of the frame to be perfectly executed (along with a perfect paint job), but apparently not back then. My response when examining the underside of a 60s Cinelli SC bottom bracket shell is that it's not very nicely finished "but times were different then!"
Chuck Schmidt South Pasadena, Southern California
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