Originally Posted by rpenmanparker

There is a fetish regarding welds in any metal that is based on the belief that the skill of the craftsman and the integrity of the joint are seen in the near perfection of the welds. Grinding/filing/polishing the slight imperfection smooth is regarded as heretical. According to that belief the very slight visible imperfection is actually perfection. Basically one pays to see the excellent welds and revels in them. If you smooth the welds out, they could have been crappy to begin with, and that just wouldn't do. I happen to disagree, believing as you do that a perfectly smooth joint would be more pleasing. And if you can take away the bumps and get to a smooth seam that has no voids in it, how could that have not have been a functionally good weld in the first place? But then I don't like bubbles in my crystal glassware either. Go figure.