Quote Originally Posted by e-RICHIE View Post
atmo the focus appears to be on fabricating a cult of personality first, and then getting the design experience, assembly skills,and
business acumen after that. i don't know where it all started, but it sure seems like the natural progression of the current day frame-
builder is to 1) build a frame, 2) take a picture, 3) blog about it, 4) seek public adoration, 5) go to nahbs, 6) come home and look for
pictures of his frame on the internet, 7) continue his learning curve by working on his 12th frame for his 5th client, 8) use whatever
deposits he left has as cash flow, 9) see that it's not all as it appears, and 10) sells his journeyman fixture on the list serve. note that
i never mention stainless head badges or water jet dropouts from e-machineshop dot com atmo.
I think we see eye-eye on this and I have a theory as to why the cult of personality often comes first. In some cases the new guy doesn't know enough about the actual craft of framebuilding to have a full respect for it so therefore focuses on what he knows and can see - the cult of personality of the successful builder. They don't realize that the success and cult of that established builder comes from having hundreds or thousands of units pass through their hands (along with the same number of happy customers) so they leapfrog to the desired end skipping the beginning and middle.

In my view it's a house of cards and will not provide a solid foundation for a business and can/will cause the glut of used jigs on Craig's list.

It's now a good time to buy a used framebuilding kit out there.


dave