Originally Posted by Peterpan1

Also "lugs", as in "you big lug". Does that really sounds pretty? People have just been conditioned to believe that lugs are high art, when welding is art and lugs are investment casting. If you want lugs just buy some from Henry James like every other frame builder. Heck, I remember when all the bikes had lugs, Big machines pressed the frames together, and multiple torches heated up the metal while slugs of brazing sloshed everywhere. Very proletarian. Plumbers do it every day.

Now TIG is an art form. It is actual hands on work, controling a 13000 degree bolt of lightning to manipulate a puddle of molten metal, while selectively cooling and building the pudde with filler wire. Sure it's easy when you know how, but so is brain surgery.

Admitedly they do carve some nice patterns in lugs, but it's so Victorian. When was the last time you got all excited about the hand carved detail on your computer chair?