I decided to try my hand at frame building in the early 1970's. My main reason was to see if building frames like the Bob Jackson and other English road racing frames that my friends drooled over were all that hard to build. They weren't. I built 15 frames before I got tired of it and took what turned out to be a permant break. I still have lots of 531 tube sets, BB shells, dropouts and lugs. I might build me a couple of light weight mountain bike frames someday. I mostly used Pragnat lugs, Campy dropouts and Reynolds 531 tubing sets brazed with 1250 degree 50% silver. I also still have a set of SL and a set of SP Columbus tubing. I imported my materials from Holdsworthy in London. As it turned out buying my biking accessories at Casa Velo in Juarez Mexico got me started. I bought from them because there wasn't much racing bike stuff available in the Las Cruces/El Paso area in the 60's when I first got into serious road riding. I still remember late nite patching of tubular tires. What a PIA!
Casa Velo was a very interesting place. They didn't speak a word of English and my Spanish was poor but we got our ideas across. The owner built custom frames in the shop. He brass brazed lugged road racing frames using mostly Reynolds 531 and some Columbus tubing. I told him I was a beginning frame builder and he gave me lots of tips on frame building and tube brazing. The main thing he stressed was good tube alignment before brazing. He pinned his lugged joints and warned me of the dangers of heating a joint twice. Do it right the first time he said. Heat it a second time and the frame might be weakened and crack.
The shop also had a wide range of high end road bikes. None had lables on them. The owner had a bunch of frame decals hanging across his arm like the towel on a waiter's arm. In Spanish he would ask "What kind of bike do you want; Professional, Touring or Expedition bicycle?" and he would show me the appropriate decals. Cracked me up. To him the main difference was the decal on the downtube. I haven't been to that shop in many years. I wonder if it's still there.