sorry to say your wrong by at least six years
im fifty four and i was taught it at colledge never had to use the skill in anger though
however on my first job after finishing my apprenticship i had to roll wipe cap and linings onto three quarte lead for new water mains
so i made my self a bench using two new kitchen base units and a board did the job took the top of the makeshift bench and lo and behold found the plastic drawers in both units had melted from the heat from the blow lamp
ooops
I found that the techniques used on large sized lead pipe to open it up for a branch, stood me in good stead, when doing a 4 x 4 x 4 double branch or any other large bore copper pipe work, treat it like lead but with the need to keep it warmer, and the "bent bolts" cool, used to "burn" two holes in the pipe, then with the draw knife link the two holes together, then start to work away opening up the branch
Going back to lead work, I was about 19 at the time ('60 or '61), and my mate asked me if I had a 4" bobbin, and carpet knee pad
these bobbins were not set up like at the tec, with a brass follower on sash cord, but on steel 5/8" lift cable with a mould of lead cast on to the cable (bit of 2" copper about 3" long was the mould, the cable had a couple of nails through the cable to stop the follower from moving, the end of the cable protruded about 4" past the follower with a "mouse" cast on the end of the cable to assist the follower around the bend being pulled, and stop it knocking ahole in the back of the bend)
When I said yes he said bring it in tomorrow and we will have a race, tomorrow came, and we used our setting out boards, (half a sheet of hardboard), to set out the bend, we checked each others setting out, filled the lamps, lit them and then when the lamps were burning well, my mate said GO, with that he nearly flattened the lead pipe, heated it up so the spit when you spat on it bounced off leaving a brown mark on the lead, then with carpet pad on knee he started to pull the bend, worked it over with the bending stick, passed the bobbin through the bend and started again, within 20 minutes he had pulled a 921/2° bend, then he spent the next 10 minutes until I had finished, first "flapping out" the dresser marks on the lead with a bit of sheet lead, then at first with sacking tallow and a bit of soft sand, then with just sacking alone, the bug*er polished the bend until it looked like silver
His words to me when I finished, were not bad, not bad at all matey, words of praise from him, seeing that he had been on the tools all his life and was close on to 63, it broke his heart to see plastic coming in to the trade
