I don’t usually take on general building and painting work. I’ve got enough going on. However. one of my old customers from the 70’s crashed his Waterford with fancy stainless joints and needed a replacement. I knew there aren't many that can do this kind of work so I took it on with the understanding other work comes 1st.

Stainless is hard to braze and even the pros at Waterford didn’t get this one right. When he ran into the back of the garbage truck, the inside fork tang gave way because the silver didn’t take hold there. My replacement would include the fancy embellishments on the side but I would use a regular steel fork crown.




To begin with I had to discover the original dimensions. The rake was lost since the blades had been bent way back. I could place the Waterford frame in my design fixture and rediscover its geometry. It had a 72º head angle so it appeared the rake was 50mm. I could get the fork length off the old fork.


This isn't the Waterford but it illustrates how I discover a frame's geometry. This is my Masi I got in 1972 and I wanted decider its geo.

To recreate the Hetchins style of outside tang I first did a rubbing. Then I traced the tubing so it was more defined. I then increased it size on my copier to 200%, Then using velum paper, I refined the tracing by hand. I sent these drawings with dimensions to the laser cutting company that makes my fixtures in Ukraine. A couple of weeks later I got back a plate with the design laser cut out of stainless.

This shows the progression from tracing to adjustment to enlargement to more adjustments


at the laser cutting company took my drawings and dimensions and turned them into a CAD drawing



the design cut out of stainless


the design punched out of the plate.


To be continued: