Cleaning day
for the guns, anyway. Lots of blasty goodness on friday, so the guns needed some attention.
The toughest in terms of getting it immaculate, of course, is the Speedmaster 241. This rifle is almost as old as my father. And it’s a beautiful rifle to shoot.
This got me thinking about Roberta’s attachment to old stuff, so to speak, and while I’m a practical man, I do share a definite affinity for the antique.
Like this rifle. It’s a 1937 version. it was at the highend of what was available in the day, and I only have it because it was dirt cheap. There isn’t a spare, unnecesary part. There isn’t a part it will function without. And the quality of manufacture is staggering.
My friend has a 1972 Monte Carlo. Due to diligence on his part, this nearly thirty year old car is flawless. I have a 45 year old lawnmower. Old things can be good.
The deal is, there’s a pragmatic aspect to life. It’s nice to have a cool old car. it’s nice not to have to buy a new lawnmower every fifteen minutes. It’s nice to click open a Zippo and light a smoke off the oily tasting flame of that lighter. it’s also nice to be able to do things without a lot of effort.
What are the things you’d rather not mess with? I like old bolt action rifles. I like zippo lighters. I like Jon-E warmers. I like bamboo fly rods. I like leather shoes with goodyear welts. I like all cotton underwear and Levis jeans. I like cars and houses and office buildings with windows that open.
What are the trhings you like fine new? I like modern ammunition. I like non corrosive black powder substitutes. I like cars that run despite little or no maintenance. I like cars and houses and office buiuldings with air conditioning.
Your prefs in comments.
14 comments Og | Uncategorized
One thing I’d like to have – a pair of the old Cee Tee pliers. You know, the ones where the jaws actually meet and actual baling wire can be cut. Not like the cheap knockoffs we’ve been getting for the past twenty or more years.
As a trucker, I like the modern versions better. Lots of people bemoan the loss of the old mechanical motors. They could be turned up and they sounded better. A back yard mechanic could work on them. The new motors mimic washing machines. However, the new ones won’t melt down in a hard pull. They might or might not pull as well, but the fuel mileage is far better. Wheels are mounted on studs with one nut clamping both wheels, far better than the old Dayton or even Budd systems. Antilock brakes actually work. Self adjusting slack adjusters keep my fat ass from crawling under the truck adjusting brakes every week.
The trucks and trailers all ride on air, rather than Reyco style spring or (God forbid) Hendrickson suspensions. Even the cabs have their own air suspensions these days. NVH and HVAC is far far better. Compression brakes and cruise control are just about standard. Twenty years ago, after about five hours behind the wheel without stopping, I’d about fall out of the cab – knees too stiff to bend. Not anymore.
So, in that arena, new is better.
Let’s not forget about actual functioning Jake brakes. Nice comment, Jeffro.
I like old dishes and new recipes. I could cook and serve an entire birthday dinner, including the cake, with stuff other people have given me. Moral of the story: Hang around when your grandparents are getting ready to move cross-country. Apparently movers charge by the pound.
I like wooden handles on my hand tools (although a resin handle on a chisel is very cool) and I like my hand tools to be made of plain carbon steel. I like analog dial faces. I like wooden matches. I like revolvers, bolt-action and falling block rifles, and side-by-side double-triggered shotguns all in blued steel and wood stocks. I like my Waltham pocket watch. I like cotton button-down shirts with two pockets and a full collar. I like my suits to be of fine wool and custom-tailored. I like leather belts, shoes, and holsters.
I appreciate stainless steel, aluminum alloys, and some plastics for their utility and economy. My wristwatch has an analog dial, but it also has a quartz movement that is solar powered and, as such, is dead reliable and has simple good looks. I appreciate stainless steel semi-auto pistols, a synthetic rifle stock on the truck gun, and my Browning Gold Hunter shotgun. Cordura works well and never needs maintenance.
I like stinky filthy real deal black powder, but before people point at me and call be crazy keep in mind I’m a reenactor. (..and those new fangled “percussion caps” will never replace a well tuned flintlock)
I love old guns. My grandfather’s Winchester mod. 12 is STILL my favorite pump 12.
I like broadband. Downloading porn at 1200 baud sucked.
In aesthetics, there’s a lot I like about the old. The new Lake County center is a dismal modern architecture monstrosity. The old Courthouse is amazing. The newer churches in my diocese tend to get their feel from Sam’s Club, where I walk into a 100 year old church in the old neighborhoods and feel how every floorboard and every nail was made with a thought to get people’s mind on that they’re in Church.
But give me modern materials.
In other things, give me consistency. The Victorinox knife, the Timex watch, the Leatherman tool. When I depend on something, I want to reach out and grab what I know will come through for me. I’d rather pay 10-50% more for something proven than less for something that I’ll have to replace three times in the lifetime of the more expensive thing, and will break on me when I need it the most.
Agreement on all counts.
As a lifelong vehicle tech, I love old technology. Tweaking points, tuning an SU carb, adjusting mixture…. But my daily driver is fuel injected, full electronic, and all the powers in the right spots.
Guns….I dearly love the old stuff. My earliest was built before the turn on the last century, and I’d happily shoot it all day long. That said, my carry pistol is a newly designed polymer pistol thats as reliable as they come, and simply refuses to corrode.
Right down the line… I like the old stuff, and more importantly perhaps, respect it.
There will come a day when a few of the things that grace our lives today will be tomorrows ‘old stuff’. I hope it measures up.
It should be the life goal of every man to be able to determine the precise moment to jack up an old piece of equipment and slide a new one under it.
The older I get the less crap I take off of ANYTHING. Bottom line? It either works well or it gets replaced with something new that does.
I can fix anything. Give me a schematic, whether mechanical or electrical, and I’ll fix it. I just don’t want to. In my younger days I used to get an adrenaline rush from the challenge just to see if I could fix something. Now I KNOW I can so why bother??? I just want the stuff I buy to WORK without having to fuck with it. I’ll fix it if I “have” to but I sure as hell don’t want to.
The last two electronically controlled marvels of vehicular engineering I purchased both have over 175k miles on them and all I’ve ever done to them is kick the tires and light the fires and they run just as good today as they did on day one. ASTOUNDING.
Talk about new things that work: I had the stupid misfortune of running over my OLD Remington 700 30-06 with an ATV (don’t ask) and what was once an acceptably accurate rifle started spraying bullets all over the countryside….. so I jacked it up and slide a new Browning X-Bolt 30-06 Stainless Stalker under it. Holy Shit what a tack-driver!!! With a trigger that’ll make you cream. It works so good that I just ordered another one in .243.
Give me the New. You keep the Old.
3 fingers of black in a semi-clean rocks glass, no rocks.
A short brunette, preferably with big natural guns and an IQ off the charts.
Finally, a good Cuban, or for this week, I’d like a good Honduran, just to piss off that jug-eared, pencil dicked communist in the White house.
Hey, you asked.
“Your prefs in comments.”
Indeed, I did. I can’t disagree- though the firewater would be bad for me. Well, not for me so much as for the neighborhood.
I miss (getting somewhat non-technical for a sec) old used book stores with stacks and stacks of books and magazines just waiting to be explored. There is a scent in a place like that which is like no other … transporting one to a somewhere akin to being in grandma’s attic as a child examining all the treasures there.
Other more “old style stuff” of a more technical nature. Tube amplifiers/stereo equipment (especially those you build yourself … where oh where are ye Heathkit, Curtis-Mathis, Lafayette, and Allied? Short wave radios/Ham sets. Vinyl records (making a comeback so I hear) providing rich warm sounds when properly set up. The current all digital equipment is nice (and I luv me some dvd goodness, let alone the new LED televisions are looking great!!) Does the above qualify?
New stuff, I like motor vehicles. I like the fact that my bike has had to have nothing but standard maintenance and doesn’t leak anything. And just keeps running.
Old stuff? That Pocket Hammerless I picked up is an example: no magazine ‘safety’, no firing pin safety, just parts designed and fitted to work together. Beautifully. The thing is 85, and still shoot like new. Maybe better, it being all broken in.
I really like my K31’s (I bought one, and then bought my brother’s later since he never shot it). They are truly works of art and engineering. It was love at first trigger pull.
Some crazy rightwing gun nut in turned me on to them at an odd ceremony called an Ogfest.