Just recently the bladeforums member willis, made a post about a Case he had bought and how it was thicker than the old ones. I've been giving his post some thought and I've looked over some of my older knives and guns,and he's right. The older stuff was just better feeling in the hand. Guns too.
I have this cigar box. Its a pretty normal cigar box, from a well known brand of cigars, Marsh Wheelings to be exact, and in it are some old sentimental items from long ago. It seems that my reputation as a pocket knife knut is well esablished, so when somebody passes on there is many times a widow, or mother, telling me that so and so wanted me to have this, or the dear departed would have liked me to have this. The "this" is usually an old pocket knife. Disturbingly, this cigar box has somehow had additions made to it as I have gotten older. Many memories of some old friends and family, a few co-workers, and one special friend I served with in the army who did'nt get to rotate home with us, are in that box. I took out my dads old well worn peanut and compared it to my late model one. They are both trim little knives, but dads is still a bit trimer in the hand. The same for guns. I'm looking at the old pre-war Colt woodsman, and I can't think of one modern .22 pistol that has the exquisite feel of the flat round butt woodsman. My 1960's Ruger standard model feels like a 2X4 compared to the old Colt. Even the later Colts of the 60's were bigger and blockier.
And then there's the sights.
One day someone will have to explain to me why the front sights have become a big blob in comparison to the fine bead sights of yesteryear. I was looking at my old Marlin .22 lever action 39 from the early 60's and the brass bead front sight is half the size of the new ones. This makes a heck of alot of difference when plinking at small targets like a piece of clay bird at 50 yards. A shooting buddy at the range has a 1980's vintage of the same gun, and the bigger front sight makes it much harder to shoot at 50, but nigh impossable at 100 yards when you have to give it some Kentucky elevation and the front sight totally covers the target. Now I do understand that with a 6 o'clock hold it should not matter, but like alot of the old timers I use a dead on hold. With older eyes a dead on hold combined with a Williams foolproof peep sight is a fast and accurite way to shoot. Rifle to shoulder, brass bead on target, pull trigger. But the brass and ivory bead sights on the old rifles are very fine compared to the new stuff, and this does not work so well then. I guess the old school of "aim small, miss small" is a thing of the past.
Looking at a classic Buck 110 folding hunter from 1965, its noticably more trim than one from later vintage. The Buck was a heavy knife to start out with, but did someone at Buck come up with the idea that a knife should have the heft of an anchor from a Spruence class destroyer?
I think forum brother willis is right, there seems to be a different theroy of design these days that is big and blocky. But I could be out of my mind, I still think the 1937 ford coupe was a great looking car!
I have this cigar box. Its a pretty normal cigar box, from a well known brand of cigars, Marsh Wheelings to be exact, and in it are some old sentimental items from long ago. It seems that my reputation as a pocket knife knut is well esablished, so when somebody passes on there is many times a widow, or mother, telling me that so and so wanted me to have this, or the dear departed would have liked me to have this. The "this" is usually an old pocket knife. Disturbingly, this cigar box has somehow had additions made to it as I have gotten older. Many memories of some old friends and family, a few co-workers, and one special friend I served with in the army who did'nt get to rotate home with us, are in that box. I took out my dads old well worn peanut and compared it to my late model one. They are both trim little knives, but dads is still a bit trimer in the hand. The same for guns. I'm looking at the old pre-war Colt woodsman, and I can't think of one modern .22 pistol that has the exquisite feel of the flat round butt woodsman. My 1960's Ruger standard model feels like a 2X4 compared to the old Colt. Even the later Colts of the 60's were bigger and blockier.
And then there's the sights.
One day someone will have to explain to me why the front sights have become a big blob in comparison to the fine bead sights of yesteryear. I was looking at my old Marlin .22 lever action 39 from the early 60's and the brass bead front sight is half the size of the new ones. This makes a heck of alot of difference when plinking at small targets like a piece of clay bird at 50 yards. A shooting buddy at the range has a 1980's vintage of the same gun, and the bigger front sight makes it much harder to shoot at 50, but nigh impossable at 100 yards when you have to give it some Kentucky elevation and the front sight totally covers the target. Now I do understand that with a 6 o'clock hold it should not matter, but like alot of the old timers I use a dead on hold. With older eyes a dead on hold combined with a Williams foolproof peep sight is a fast and accurite way to shoot. Rifle to shoulder, brass bead on target, pull trigger. But the brass and ivory bead sights on the old rifles are very fine compared to the new stuff, and this does not work so well then. I guess the old school of "aim small, miss small" is a thing of the past.
Looking at a classic Buck 110 folding hunter from 1965, its noticably more trim than one from later vintage. The Buck was a heavy knife to start out with, but did someone at Buck come up with the idea that a knife should have the heft of an anchor from a Spruence class destroyer?
I think forum brother willis is right, there seems to be a different theroy of design these days that is big and blocky. But I could be out of my mind, I still think the 1937 ford coupe was a great looking car!
