We had a hammer Siace come through the shop several years ago and while I thought it was pretty neat (& quite practical), it missed me a bit (simply too-modern for my tastes).
I'm so-drawn to the history of these earlier guns. I like the fact that they have survived (largely-intact) to this day, which is well-over 120-years and counting. Everything about them is unique (by modern standards)... in that the "creating" of them captured vast amounts of human time (that was solely-invested in their manufacture). From the damascus tubes (3-days, 3-men & ~30lbs of metal), to the original design and then the trial & error of all that hand-filing of the actions & hammers until they "worked", the hand-forming (shaping & balancing) & checkering, and then fitting of their lovely & mainly French-walnut stocks. I swear that you can somehow "see" that investment of nearly-endless human effort in them. For me, they absolutely "glow" from all the focused-human energy that was so-deftly put into them. The "browned" Best English 2 and 3-bar tubes, all of that incredibly-intricate engraving, and the bone-charcoal case colors (now mostly-faded with time) are honest and enduring "technologies" that are financially impossible to replicate these days (at least to that incredibly high-level of skill).
Modern weaponry does not have those attributes for me. Mass-production, even on a very limited scale, involves far-less human time in the creation of anything these days (as it arguably must). Fluid steel has become somewhat soulless to me now as well (I do use it & it works very well, but...) and most modern finishes (like "silvered" or anything anodized, and/or chemical-types of case-hardening) do not capture my imagination like they might-have once.
I have become more discerning, it seems. We stand on the shoulders of giants and so-many (nearly all anymore) are painfully unaware of that fact.
I hope I'm not around for the accounting.
Last edited by Lloyd3; 07/21/25 11:54 AM.
