Ultraorange, I have a supply of blank Nikko lugs in both standard and OS sizes. They have slightly longer sockets than the old stamped and welded blank lugs made by Haden, Nervex or Chater Lea. Nikko lugs are bulge formed so they have a nice smooth surface without any welded seams and their angles can be more easily altered than investment cast lugs. By chance I ran into Nikko at an Industrial trade show in Chicago (bulge forming is used in many ways) and convinced them to make lugs again. They hadn’t manufactured lugs in years. I also have a supply of Nikko spear point lugs that are very similar in shape to old Cinelli stamped lugs. These lugs have a little more real estate on top for cutting out some kind of single design like a cloverleaf or initial. I sell these lugs as a fundraiser for a charity bike project in Ukraine.

If your design extends beyond the limits of the length of the lug socket (for example like leaves on a vine), standard procedure is to just cut that part out of a regular tube and braze it directly onto the frame tube beyond the lug. It is possible to tig weld the extension onto the end of the lug but there isn’t much point to do that because it is only decorative and not functional. Hetchins attached their extensions by gas welding (melting the steel together with their oxyacetylene torch).

I became interested in designing lugs after getting a Hetchins in 1969. It had a simple lug design with straight stays (not their “curly” model they are famous for). When I apprenticed at Ellis-Briggs in England in 1975, Jack Briggs gave me what was left of their supply of blank lugs. In the 50’s they did a frame model that used a punch press with 17 different shapes to create their lug design. It was popular in England after the war for a builder’s top model to be a fancy design cut out of blank lugs.

Often in my framebuilding classes a student will choose to create a their own unique design using Nikko blank lugs.