I just finished up a JKS today and sent it off to JB for paint. I had to complete the fork before it went out the door and ended up with a few photos you might like to see.
The fork may be small compared to the frame but it’s just as complex to build and in ways requires it’s own skill set. One of the things about making curved blade forks like I do is that the blade needs to be bent the correct amount for the designed rake of the fork. Since different steels react differently and have different amounts of ‘spring-back’ this can be difficult to get just right. I use tooling that I designed and built myself and it allows me very good control of the curve radius and duration. I like bending tools.
Anyway, here’s some photos of a fork build. Tomorrow I should have some photos of a few fresh paint jobs just back from JB.
Dave
Nice photos, lovely work. As you know, I ride around on one of your forks, and I’ve had one other bike with a steel fork. I especially like the way the steel forks seem to eat up the slightly bumpy roads we have out here. I’ve come to believe that getting a good steel fork is a significant argument for seeing a custom builder. It is interesting to see the tools you use to make the bends. I had always assumed that a real skill is getting the two blades to be identical (a friend who is a sculptor says that is the trick when sculpting a face — getting the left side of the face the same proportions as the right). I’m sure if I tried it the two blades would differ by several millimeters, but it looks like you have a system dialed in (. . . this is why you won’t be seeing an ad for “Eric’s Precision Cycles” anytime soon).