Thursday, June 22, 2017

penland bicycle frame building





























































Yesterday I drove down to Penland after my summer class was over for the day. Rachel and Jay had asked me to come down and visit during the bike building workshop, and I really wanted to see what they were learning in the class. Carmen Gambino is teaching the class. I got to the blacksmithing studio around 1:30 and everyone there was working on their frames. Rachel, Jay and Seth Gould showed me their progress answered a few questions I had and then I told them to just get back to work so I didn't hold up their progress. I hung out and just watched everyone work. It was cool to see the various techniques people were using for making the frame. Seth's was farther ahead than Rachel and Jay, and his frame was looking amazing (as one would expect from Seth). Jay and Rachel's frames were coming along nicely though and had some cool touches like Jay's bullet shaped stays and Rachel's filed lugs. I watched them each do a few brazed seams and it looked pretty straight forward and similar to brazing silver. They actually used silver on some of the joints they made. I looked the frame jig over well. In the future I would love to build a dedicated jig for such a thing. I also think making some pierced lugs would be killer. We all chatted about the potential for frame badges and other specialized pieces to add to the bikes. I had such a great time hanging out with everyone. I can't wait to teach my anodizing class next summer here at Penland. In the mean time I'm going to have to spend some more time just hanging out here. I always leave inspired to work.



2 comments:

Natalie Macellaio said...

That is so awesome!! I would love to build my own bike frame! I have a custom bike but would have loved it to be my own custom work! I am going to have to look into doing a workshop there in the near future!

Frankie Flood said...

Yeah, I dream of this too. I wish I hadn't been teaching a summer class this semester during the time that it was happening! Would love to take the class with YOU too!

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