Materials- Lugsets
The Art of Hand Filing: Steel Stamped Lug modifications, and Proprietary Lug sets.
In our contemporary society artisanal construction methods and production are becoming a rare trade and cultural practice. Fine craftspeople in different fields such as, blacksmithing, car customization, painting, jewelry, woodworking, pottery, knife making, and pinstripping, for example, continue to keep their craft alive in a context of adverse economic conditions. Sadly, one of the realities of our modern society is not that “handmade” products require not only more labor than machine-industrial production, but that we have become to some extent alienated from the conditions of production. We sometimes, forget where and how a product was produced; not only under what conditions, but we have begun to “forget” what it takes to produce something from scratch, by hand, with our hands, mind and eyes: without mechanized or computerized technology. Some consumers do not know what is the knowledge, experience and cultural milieu required to master the creation of handmade products. In the context of contemporary handmade bicycles, the steel stamped lug (the pressed lug) made our to mild steel offers a great resource for creating great handmade steel frame joinery, with superb mechanical and aesthetic qualities. This material was used extensively in bicycle production from about the early part of the last century to about the mid 70’s. A precursor to the “sand cast” lug, that required even more labor to hand file and metal sculpt, the steel stamped lug was and still is one of the most labor intensive methods of bicycle production if the maker chooses to sculpt the material by using his/hers hand files and its technique.
With this in mind, in most cases the use of the steel stamped lug required the knowledge of metal working, metal sculpting, hand filing, in order to attain a “finished product”; that is, production craftsmen at marque companies hand filed these lugs, to their liking: Colnago, Masi, Rene Herse, Rene Singer, De Rosa, Peugeot, Raleigh (to name a few, but the list is long). Created out of “pressed” sheet of mild steel, this material offers great advantages for bicycle construction. The steel stamped lug, like a “sand cast” lug, or a contemporary investment cast lug, is another viable and sound method of construction. Pressed lugs offer another method of creating a very safe and sound joint while giving a craftsperson great flexibility for expressing his/her bicycle design and aesthetic principles. These act as great stress relief, while at the same time they provide artisanal hands another “canvas” for incorporating and expressing the author’s/maker’s mark. For Slowcraft Maldoror, we stress this point, because that handfiled joint is what makes our bicycles ours!
Slowcraft Maldoror uses fine pressed steel stamped lug sets from our original vintage Nervex, Prugnant, Haden, Nikko Sanyo, and Bocama, inventories. These are modified by adding material so that we may reshape them to our Slowcraft Maldoror designs. Producing a unique and full custom bicycle, like no other, requires that we strife to strip the fabrication even further from “off the shelf” production materials. This method of construction requires that we first modify and reshape the lugs to our specs. Once these are ready, and our main triangle is brazed, our joints are hand filed in order to metal sculpt them to express our design and aesthetic.
Although this method of construction is more labor intensive, it not only offers us with a great medium to further personalize our frames, it also gives us the opportunity to continue this particular cultural craft and method of handmade production alive.
While each modified steel stamped (pressed) lugged and hand filed frame is an example of our particular aesthetics and craftsmanship, we have also begun to offer frames with our own proprietary handmade lug sets. These are made from scratch from 4130-Chromoly and mild steel. They make possible the creation of a frame that is closer to the Slowcraft Maldoror’s design ideals; these are pure and sober, experimental and subdued creations searching to expand not only the industry standard but our own strict design codes. Our lug sets not only ensure that each Slowcraft Maldoror frame is one-of-a-kind piece, but its how we ensure that our bicycles are our own! Its just the way we do it!
Please feel free to visit our gallery to experience several examples of our design and craft principles.