The boy slept for nearly two and a half hours in the middle of the day - time enough for me to hit the shed and braze up the fork for my wife Heather's bike. The crown and fork ends are the Long Shen Fleur-de-lys pattern, both in stainless.

Went together without a hitch, although it needed some post-braze tweaking. With the flux all gone, now begins the long and laborious process of filing, sanding and polishing. I've been fighting a losing battle with tendonitis in my elbows for about 10 years now, and hours of repetitive sanding and filing is pretty much the worst thing I can do, so I'll have to ration this task out over the next week so I don't have a total melt-down.




I've pretty much done the rough filing on the crown, so at least I've made some progress. Fork ends are a lot easier, and should be done before I dose up on anti-inflammatories and head out to the pub this evening!



The last couple of days here in Blackwood have been stunners. Well below freezing overnight, and clear, still cloudless days. Everything going to plan I'll head out on my dual suspension Ellsworth tomorrow morning and crunch some ice on the local trains. Have a good weekend.