"Cymbal Craftsman" Paul Francis

I had a rather unpleasant encounter with Paul Francis when I visited the Zildjian factory years ago. The back story is a bit too long to explain. Let's just say I found things he wrote to be untrue and self-serving.
 
I'd like to check out some of these in person, but travelling to Chicago would require spending most of my cymbal budget right from the start.
Too bad there's no sound files for us to hear at this time.
 
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Wow, an $1100 ride. Wow.
the little rascals cash GIF
 
I had a rather unpleasant encounter with Paul Francis when I visited the Zildjian factory years ago. The back story is a bit too long to explain. Let's just say I found things he wrote to be untrue and self-serving.
Like what??
 
It's too long a story to explain in detail, but the shortened, condensed version is, I returned a bad ride cymbal to the Zildjian factory for an exchange, after reading an article Paul Francis wrote that stated that, "hand hammering of cymbals is just a marketing ploy." Basically, he said hand hammering is inferior to machine hammering, and went on an on about it. I felt it was a direct stab at Sabian, and all the Turkish cymbal makers who hand hammer, something I consider a skilled artform. When I was introduced to him, I called him out on it.

I see he he hand hammers his new line of cymbals. Now, isn't that ironic? And hypocritical.

$1100 for a ride cymbal? Just...no.
 
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I always heard that Zildjian had to stop hand hammering in the mid-80's because OSHA told them it was dangerous to hammer and could cause injuries to the hammerer (like tendonitis, carpal tunnel etc.). so Zildjian was forced to spend millions of dollars to recreate hand hammering by machine hammering.

This only affected Zildjian, because all the other major cymbal manufacturers are non-USA based and therefore not under the jurisdication of OSHA.
 
Curious about those cymbals. Don't have instagram and can't check his account, but maybe someone can share pics here (if there are any)
Nice to see that he's back in action. Was wondering when he would pop up again after leaving Zildjian
 
This sounds like the bad old days when Paul was defending his employer against vicious attacks by one Drumaholic (Bill Hartrick) who claimed that Zildjian didn't know how to make cymbals anymore and the only decent Zildjian cymbals came from Istanbul where they were hand hammered, or A Zildjian Trans Stamps which came before the introduction of machines. Do you have a reference to where you saw it? Year of publication? I'm just interested as part of my historical research.

In hindsight, I think you are right. I think Paul was defending his employer, who did not hand hammer cymbals. This was in the early 2000's, I believe, and Zildjian's quality had gone down the toilet at that point. I was not alone in my opinion, of course. Bill Hartrick was unrelenting with his attacks. But every time I went to a music store, I tried out the Zildjians. They all seemed to sound like garbage.

It all started when I bought a 21" Sweet Ride, because a friend of mine recommended it. I was extremely disappointed; it sounded like sh** on toast. Just dull and lifeless. I wrote Craigie Zildjian a letter and told her that Armand would be ashamed of the quality. She called me and graciously invited me up to the factory for an exchange. Before I went, I traveled to Meductic, New Brunswick, and spent a whole day touring the Sabian factory, had dinner with Bob and Willie Zildjian, and was treated like royalty the whole time, by every Sabian employee I met. I walked out of there convinced that Sabian was doing things right, and that Canadians were the nicest people in the world, and I still believe that.

Then, I took the trip up to Quincy, met Craigie and her staff, did the factory tour, and was a bit disturbed to see how quickly they knocked out those cymbals. It was no wonder every Zildjian cymbal sounded like garbage to me at that point in time. I was treated very well however, and picked out a nice K ride, but the experience generally left me with a bad taste in my mouth about Zildjian that remains to this day. I haven't bought a Zildjian cymbal since, although I think their quality has improved.

We have so many excellent cymbal choices these days: Paiste, Sabian, Meinl, UFIP, all the Turkish hand hammered examples and many others. Who needs Zildjian? Back when I started drumming, there was Zildjian, and there was crap. Not the case these days.

Also, at that time, I became friendly with the late cymbalsmith Mike Skiba from Brick Township, NJ, and spent some time watching him hammer and finish his cymbals. Impressive. He knew more about cymbals than any man I ever met.

I read Francis's article somewhere online. I think it may have been posted on DFO. In it, he said hand hammering was nothing more than a marketing ploy. When I met Paul Francis, here's how the conversation went:

Zildjian rep: "Bob, this is Paul Francis, who heads up the R&D here at Zildjian."

Paul: "Oh. You're the guy who wrote the letter."

Bob: "Right, And you're the guy that wrote that bullsh** about hand hammering."

And that was the end of our conversational exchange. The Zildjian rep whisked me out of that room quickly.

So now, I am a bit surprised to read that Paul Francis hand hammers his cymbals. Ironic indeed.
 
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Mike was a wealth of knowledge on cymbals, as you know. So was Spizzichino. All these guys are gone and that's sad.

Mike reworked a Paiste 18" Signature crash that I cracked. He cut off an inch and drilled holes in it, making it a trashy 17" crash. It sounds great.
 
One cymbal has hundreds and hundred of hammering into it… construction very different
One roofing shingle has 3 nails in it. There are thousands of them on every roof. Not every roofer uses nail guns.

There are probably somewhere between 50,000 and 100,000 nails in a finished house.

Again, not everyone uses nail guns.
 
In hindsight, I think you are right. I think Paul was defending his employer, who did not hand hammer cymbals. This was in the early 2000's, I believe, and Zildjian's quality had gone down the toilet at that point. I was not alone in my opinion, of course. Bill Hartrick was unrelenting with his attacks. But every time I went to a music store, I tried out the Zildjians. They all seemed to sound like garbage.

It all started when I bought a 21" Sweet Ride, because a friend of mine recommended it. I was extremely disappointed; it sounded like sh** on toast. Just dull and lifeless. I wrote Craigie Zildjian a letter and told her that Armand would be ashamed of the quality. She called me and graciously invited me up to the factory for an exchange. Before I went, I traveled to Meductic, New Brunswick, and spent a whole day touring the Sabian factory, had dinner with Bob and Willie Zildjian, and was treated like royalty the whole time, by every Sabian employee I met. I walked out of there convinced that Sabian was doing things right, and that Canadians were the nicest people in the world, and I still believe that.

Then, I took the trip up to Quincy, met Craigie and her staff, did the factory tour, and was a bit disturbed to see how quickly they knocked out those cymbals. It was no wonder every Zildjian cymbal sounded like garbage to me at that point in time. I was treated very well however, and picked out a nice K ride, but the experience generally left me with a bad taste in my mouth about Zildjian that remains to this day. I haven't bought a Zildjian cymbal since, although I think their quality has improved.

We have so many excellent cymbal choices these days: Paiste, Sabian, Meinl, UFIP, all the Turkish hand hammered examples and many others. Who needs Zildjian? Back when I started drumming, there was Zildjian, and there was crap. Not the case these days.

Also, at that time, I became friendly with the late cymbalsmith Mike Skiba from Brick Township, NJ, and spent some time watching him hammer and finish his cymbals. Impressive. He knew more about cymbals than any man I ever met.

I read Francis's article somewhere online. I think it may have been posted on DFO. In it, he said hand hammering was nothing more than a marketing ploy. When I met Paul Francis, here's how the conversation went:

Zildjian rep: "Bob, this is Paul Francis, who heads up the R&D here at Zildjian."

Paul: "Oh. You're the guy who wrote the letter."

Bob: "Right, And you're the guy that wrote that bullsh** about hand hammering."

And that was the end of our conversational exchange. The Zildjian rep whisked me out of that room quickly.

So now, I am a bit surprised to read that Paul Francis hand hammers his cymbals. Ironic indeed.
Very subtle. If we were playing AITH with this post, I might have had to downvote you. But since I like Sabian and all but one of mine are Sabian, I will give you a pass ;) I don’t know much about cymbalsmithing, but I think I might have saved that line for later and not led with it.
 
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