Given a choice between the same pattern and the same Mfg which would you pick?

I still say there was more care taken in days gone by. That's how come the quality still shows through after all these years.

Thanks for the quote, Elliot. (OT, I realize, but ...) I originally thought of that question w/r/t S&W revolvers, and if the people in the pre-war period appreciated them as much as collectors nowadays do.

I understand the pressure has always been on to make as many units in as small a time as possible, cutting corners whenever you could get away with it, etc. Maybe it's just that we've cut so many corners over time we're now cutting into the meat.

-- Sam
 
What do ya think a cutler from the early 1900s would say if he held a modern day production Case, or even a Taiwan made knife.

I remember havin' an old time collector tellin' me when I started goin' to shows and swap meets that you could always tell a good knife with a few tests.

1) Hold the knife up to a strong light and look for light leaks at the backspring spacers and scales.

2) A well made knife makes a smooth transition from scale to bolster, shouldn't even feel it if ya scrape yer nail across it.

3) Blades should walk-n-talk, stay centered when closed, not rub on the liners or other blades when openin' or closin' and no sharp angles should be felt beyond the patterns profile while open or closed.

4) The blade should take a quick edge and hold it long enough to finish the job, (which he said in his father's day that meant a day at the farm, it was the first thing his father grabbed in the mornin' and the last thing he set down at night).

5) Lastly he said was, "...it had to fit and feel good good in yer hand".

Most of my knives from the 30's and 40's fit that description and more than enough of my newer production knives failed 2 or 3 outta 5.:mad:

I wonder if the early cutlers carried knives made in England and Germany and looked at the new production methods they were usin' produced an inferior knife?
 
Being mildy obsessed with knives, one of my favorite things to pick apart are grinds. I like hollow as well as flat, and I love swedges. Some newer knives are trending toward old tyme looking profiles, but I don't think they do as good a job. I have a few new knifes with hollow grinds and as I put them "up to the light" I can see a wave in them, like the grind is not straight or carried through like older ones.It's a though old cutlers had a special talent for keeping them straight and new cutlers are trained in a day and set out to make as many as possible.I don't have any issues with stainless or carbon on newer upper scale blades today. If you have to sharpen it more or less than another, no big deal to me.I like a backspring to be in the same position open and closed which doesn't happen on alot of newer ones.I don't mind seeing light through the back of a spring and liner as longas it's minimal. I almost think the tolerance is more in favor of being a bit longer on the liner to make the spring a little more snappy.
 
I'd definately take the New, Old Stock, but not from CASE. All of mine would be original E.C. Simmons marked Keen Kutters from Walden.
 
I'd prefer old.

80 years ago production was important, but there weren't many shortcuts that could be applied to hand fitting. A close inspection of a pristine pre-war S&W revolver will tell the tale. Same with a hand fitted knife.....there were no machines to take the place of a well trained human hand.
 
Older.

For all the reasons shared above.
Plus folks were raised right, and therefore products were made right.
 
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