Sunday February 7, 2010

Raking

I raked blades for 3 forks today, and the new mandrel is awesome. I came to it’s design thru the use and modification of 4 previous iterations of wooden mandrels, advice from other builders, and a desire for the “coolest looking” and highest performance blade shape.

The radius is small and the bend is near the end of the blade because the style of those old overly raked forks is unbeatable, and placing the offset down on the smaller part of the tube takes better advantage the fork’s ability to flex and absorb shock, and places the bend where the tube diameter is smallest and the wall thickness is greatest.