On Saturday, Dec 3, 2005, at 08:13 US/Pacific, rodk3d@comcast.net wrote:
> All this talk of fillet brazing has me wondering who the modern KOF
> fillet brazed builders are. 3 modern builders that come to mind are
> David Kirk, Jeff Lyon and John Slawta, I'm sure there are many others.
> What do you owners of newer fillet brazed frames think of them >
> overall?
Sorry to come to this a bit late, but I was in Seattle selling and building fillet-brazed/bronze-welded/lugless frame this weekend. As someone else pointed out most builders can build this way. On the other hand there are few of us that actually prefer this method, partially because we're still thought of like the proverbial red-headed stepchild. Also my experience says that selling a "KOF" steel frame with lugs is way easier than a fillet-brazed frame. I used to be a diehard lug licker until the Bill Philbrook frame pictured on the CR page lived in my living room for a year. Looking at that frame everyday made me rethink my aesthetic preferences.
Now I find lugs hide too much of "the hand of the builder" for my preference. In the grand scheme of "KOF" framebuilding it really doesn't make any difference with the weight, strength, or ride characteristics. It all comes down to personal aesthetics and what you like. best, Brandon"monkeyman"Ives still has to use a file on his fillets in Vancouver, B.C.
PS: Don't get stuck up on the terms thing since bicycle framebuilding is full of this stuff. Framebuilding should be two words or two words with a hyphen, and what we all call a jig is really a fixture.
PSS: Also remember that the U.S. and the U.K. are two countries divided by a common language.