The availability of "professional" quality hand porting work 'is' one of the casualties of this so-called modern era! As this is laborious, dirty, noisy, menotonous and even "bad for your health" type work; and then that only some possess the finesse for, and even fewer that will develop the skill, that will allow them to produce a truly professional result for. So it just doesn't sound like a calling for the young people of today. Then aid in that it doesn't even pay well!
I've got literally decades of my life given to porting heads & intakes, cast iron mostly early on, as there literally weren't any aluminum heads for Fords, except the BOSS 429, relatively scarce FE and then some "really" rare Cleveland and of even 'greater' rarity 385 series (canted valve) stuff that you just 'never' saw. So back then, with only the O.E.M. cast iron stuff being readily available, this meant that only with a set of well ported heads were you going to be competitive, therefore there was a greater incentive to fill this "need". But now it's just mostly a "vintage whim" practice, or someone looking for a cheaper option than buying a set of more modern aluminum heads, but in any case no longer presenting the "requirement" as in the past. And then, as soon as you try to get paid a reasonable sum for the many hours of time you've invested, not that I even considered porting work as truly profitable in the shop, but rather just something that had to be done, first thing you hear is: it'd be cheaper to just buy a new set of (chinese) heads off ebay!
Would you suggest to your child, that this might be a good career choice!
Scott.
