Reynolds forks.

[cyclop]

Do reynolds 531 forks always have a Reynolds stamp on the steerer?

[simonineaston]

a Reynolds stamp

I'm unclear what is meant by the word stamp. I'm thinking that most makers would likely place a sticker or decal or transfer on the forks at time of making, it being free advertising in a way. But such forks are likely to be a few years old by now...

[geomannie]

a Reynolds stamp

I'm unclear what is meant by the word stamp. I'm thinking that most makers would likely place a sticker or decal or transfer on the forks at time of making, it being free advertising in a way. But such forks are likely to be a few years old by now...

Yes, AFAIK Reynolds 531 forks don't have any stamp on the steerer, but they generally have appropriate decals on the fork blades. The latter can be misleadingly applied to non-531 forks however.

[David9694]

No, leastways not to denote the material of the fork blades. On some better makes, you may get a stamped number that matches the frame number.

[Orbit531C]

Do reynolds 531 forks always have a Reynolds stamp on the steerer?

I think this earlier post by Brucey gives the best answer to your question about Reynolds stamp markings on the steerer tubes:

The Raleigh Richmond was for many years black with gold decals, and fitted with centre pull brakes. I'm not sure that I ever remember one with decals that look like that or with canti bosses fitted.

British Eagle did a model called the 'Richmond' too; it might be an early incarnation of that. IIRC their frames (which could be branded variously) were otherwise fairly anonymous and may indeed be where I've seen that top eye treatment before.

BTW if the fork is reynolds 531 tubing then for many years this could be easily identified by the stamp markings on the steerer and the fork blades. These marks are very shallow and you need to remove all the paint to see them. If the frame has been enthusiastically abraded then they may no longer be visible. Also after a certain date they may have quit stamping them, too. But if the marks are there they will be in a typeface about 1.5mm height, all capitials, reading 'REYNOLD'S BUTTED TUBE' in a single horizontal line.

cheers

you can see an example here:

[Orbit531C]

There are a couple of examples of the "Reynolds" stamp on the fork blades themselves here, where the topic is also discussed https://www.bikeforums.net/classic-vint ... lades.html

[cyclop]

My 70,s mercian did but my Joe Waugh just has numbers,Reynolds 531 frame .Forged ,sloping, crown,has to be a quality fork given the maker.

[Orbit531C]

This post by Doug Fattic, a framebuilder on another forum describes some of the stampings found on Reynolds, Columbus & Tange fork steerers:

"The amount of depth of the stamped impression varied. Some you could barely see while others were much clearer Here is a picture of an SLX tube after they had started using graphic discharge to mark their tubes. Instead of saying what the wall thickness was in numerals, they marked what model of tube it was. During this marking time period they also included the date by month and year when it was manufactured. Next to it in yhe picture are 2 old Columbus steerers with 2 different dove images. I don't know anything about time frame or models on either of them except the bigger image came from a set I got in the 70's when I was 1st teaching frame building classes.

Reynolds use to mark their tubes around the short butted end. In other words reading around the tube instead of lengthwise like on the SLX tube pictured. The top line would say Reynolds 531 and below that on the 2nd line would be the wall thickness of the tube in sheet metal designation. For example if it was a 1" top tube it might say 20/23 (which is roughly equivalent to 0.8/0.5 mm) or 19/22 (close to 0.9/0.6 mm). The smaller the number the thicker the tube. Of course as soon as the graphic discharge markings were sandblasted or emeried they disappeared.

Some manufacturers like True Temper never marked their tubes. This could become a headache if they were removed from the packaging the distributor used to say what the tube was".
Other posters added:
"Not all steerers were stamped."
"After about 1980 they [Columbus] used graphite discharge marking on the frame tubes but continued to stamp the steer tube."

https://www.bikeforums.net/classic-vint ... tamps.html

[Orbit531C]

This image shows how Reynolds have changed the way they marked their tube sets from stamping to a type of printing, sometime before or by the late 1980's as it is a 653 tubeset: Reynolds 653 replaced 531Professional and 653 appeared in Raleigh catalogues in 1987...