As already mentioned, having an apprentice does not make economic sense for a master builder making one-off custom frames. It takes a lot of time to teach someone and then bring them up to the level quality that is expected of today’s builder. And not everyone can reach that level no matter how long they train. Learning involves mistake making and those can be costly. How is the apprentice going to pay back all that time he has been given and cover the expenses of his mistakes? A customer is not going to want some beginner doing anything significant on his new expensive frame. There are things that take a lot of practice to get right. And then there is the issue of getting along well with someone you have to work with every day. That is not guaranteed and involves risk too.

I was a high school teacher before I went to learn from a master in England in the 70’s. That opportunity was one of the best things to ever happen to me. My objective was to document the process so I could teach it back here in the States (where at the time the craft had been mostly lost). For years I mostly taught classes so someone could be able to make a frame instead of buying it. But about 15 years ago I switched gears a bit because there was a demand for a more in depth class so students could make more after class was over. As an educator I realized that this group needed more time than 10 days of class and extended the training to 17 days over 3 weeks. I also spent hundreds of hours writing and rewriting my 150 page class manual that explains how to put a frame together and details the basics of brazing and filing. It is easy for students to forget a lot that is crammed into a few weeks and need reminders. Frame building concepts are more complicated than one might think. My objective has always been to give my students a competitive advantage over those that travel a different path.

I’ve also created a program where one can practice what they’ve learned and at the same time help make another part of the world a better place. We do a charity project to provide bicycles to Ukrainian pastors. On a college campus just west of Kiev we have a frame/bicycle shop. Their dorms and cafeteria make it a convenient to live in another country for a couple of months and build transportation frames. That repetition makes a huge difference in refining skills.

Learning how to build frames well takes a lot of time and money no matter what road a beginner takes – especially if you are trying to figure it out on your own. Some roads are better than others of course and those that want to be the best need to study their options carefully so they aren’t wasting their resources trying to catch up with the quality level of the masters.