I like old stuff.
But I don’t hang it on the wall or put it in display cases. I use the stuff.
Well I do hang some on the wall. I have a nice collection of watchmaker trade cards and advertising signs that cover the walls of my watch making shop. But the antique watch making and jeweler’s tools all get used. When I restore a vintage watch for myself, I wear it. When I buy a vintage yo-yo, even a “collectible”, I play it hard and put wear on it. I have several vintage tube amplifiers which get knocked around and used on blues band gigs all the time.
You see I believe that this stuff was made to be used so it should keep being used. Now I love museums and preserving specimens of things for future generations to see is a good thing. I realize that many museum collections and even museums themselves evolved from private collections but you won’t see that happening with any of my stuff. That is unless I’ve worn something out and it can’t be used for it’s intended purpose any more and someone still thinks it is worth displaying somewhere.
Old Tools are Cool Tools
Some of the jeweler’s tools residing in my vintage bench are over 100 years old. Most average around 50. I like them for several reasons;
• Old tools were often made better. More time was spent on the manufacturing process back when manpower was plentiful and cheaper. Making a reputable product was more important than stripping the process down to the cheapest and quickest methods. Quality materials were used with fewer synthetics, wood, American steel, brass, leather etc. Natural materials are not always better than many of today’s synthetics but I prefer them.
• Old tools are way cooler. I find wood handles and cases to be nicer than plastics, not as durable but cool. Also they wear, I like to watch wear develop, more on that later. More attention was given to aesthetics decades ago. Products were made to be functional and good looking. One of my vintage watch making books says that a tool should not only serve its function but also look good so that a watchmaker is proud to leave it out in the open. Polishing, engraving, special shapes and materials, and fine cases that do not enhance the function but add to the beauty were used on basic tools as well as the high-end models.
• Old tools are way cheaper. This is probably the most driving reason to purchase used vintage tools. If the technology hasn’t changed too drastically from the time the tool was made a lot of money can be saved. In a dying field like vintage watch making or jeweler this is easy. When everyone had a mechanical watch there were thousands of watchmakers everywhere. Now their tools still exist but the number of watchmakers has dwindled to hundreds so there are more tools than demand for them.
• Old tools fit the old methods. I work on old watches using old watch making methods. Many of the tools I use regularly are the exact ones pictured or referred to in old watch making lessons. This makes procedures easier to understand and skills easier to develop.
Music Sounds Better Through Old Gear
Only one of my four tube amps is younger than 45 years old and that is a ’59 re-issue. All of them are used for gigs. I think they sound better than new amps. I like everything about old tube amps. I like the way they look, the way they sound and even the smell. There is an aroma of hot tubes in an old cabinet after a gig that lingers while I carry the amp to the car and even in the car. I like that smell. The wiring and components are hand installed and soldered with point to point wiring, no circuit boards here. Once again, there was more time and effort spent building these old amps. Mostly because that was the state of the art and they had to do it that way. The fact that high-end boutique amps are still made that way today tells me that there were other advantages to these old methods. I prefer the old ones and I play them hard. This makes it necessary to know at least one trustworthy amp technician who uses the old ways to keep these things working. (He probably uses old tools too.), Also needed is ongoing cabinet maintenance. As these things get tossed around through loading and unloading the cabinets sometimes begin to come apart. That requires re-gluing tolex and joints or adding corner braces. I still would rather see these beauties bouncing around in the back of a hot pickup truck on the way to a gig than sitting in someone’s collection room with the capacitors drying out from non-use. I think a Fender tweed with the tweed all tattered and frayed and the corners all bashed playing on a stage is more beautiful than a pristine one in on display that no one can touch.
Toys! Play em Hard!
My yo-yo collection is more of a rotation than a collection. Every one of them is played hard. Every one of them spends the day in my pocket sooner or later in the rotation. Included in the vintage wood rotation is a No-Jive 3in1, Duncan Beginners, matching Duncan Butterfly and Satellite models, and several other old yo-yos that fit the “collectibles” status. All are old originals not re-issues. They get wear from my hand, string friction, hitting objects and every other type of accumulative wear that goes along with playing with a yo-yo and having fun with it. Each has an evolving character, a physical log of it’s hours of play. I could have hung them on the wall or displayed them in a case and they would still look as nice as when I got them. I do not feel that I could ever get near the amount of enjoyment out of possessing, looking, holding, and maybe playing with them gently and carefully fearing any nick or scrape. Even selling them at a profit after holding them over time could not match up unless it is one impressive profit and I’m not really interested in taking that route.
Enjoyment is directly proportional to wear.
Tools and toys showing the most wear are the most enjoyed. If a tool is hard or unpleasant to use it will not be reached for as often as it’s competition. There is a saying I’ve heard Pennsylvania Dutchmen say; “This tool likes my hand.” Toys demonstrate my theory even better. An awesome shiny $40 theme toy that makes lights and sounds often sits unused and remains shiny while a $1 yo-yo has the paint wore off and a dirty string or a $3 Whiffle bat is bent, scuffed and nicked. Skateboards have their edges ground off but video games are cast aside as soon as a newer one comes out because now it is boring. It is easy to pick out which toys are more fun in those examples.
Dogs Know it.
When my dog brings me a toy to tug I realized that he isn’t saying “let’s play tug”. He is saying “help me yank this thing to pieces. Let’s have fun!” I’ve watched him chew a hole in a stuffed toy and pull out the stuffing bit by bit. He doesn’t want to eat the stuffing or play with the toy without the stuffing. He just wants to have fun pulling it apart. It is simple to pick out which toys my dog enjoys. The ones that are destroyed or in some process of being destroyed.
Kids Know it.
Yesterday I was playing with my 6 year old grandson. I have a couple of well used $3 friction motor plastic monster trucks that we play with sometimes when he comes to my house. We were playing on an old slide on the abandoned playground next to my place. This is a twelve foot slide and it occurred to me that it would be fun to run the trucks on it. After a short time and a lot of fun and laughter we got to the point where we were sending the trucks off the top of the slide using it as “The worlds most dangerous high jump ramp.” Pieces were coming off the trucks and we were inflicting a lot of damage but having a blast. We ended up with a little “junkyard” of broken car parts at the bottom to warn drivers of the dangerous jump but they went anyway! Agggh! Crash! Hahaha! Ok this cost me $6 for the trucks which already had hours of fun play on them but we had priceless fun playing then HARD. I sprung $40 for a movie theme toy a few years ago that he never wants to play with and we logged about 1 hour total play on that turkey.
Like I said; Enjoyment is directly proportional to wear.
Old Guys Know it.
I totally understand the collector rationale. I’ve had collections of things which I preserved and diligently protected their pristine newness. I wish now that I had allowed my young daughter to bend and read my old comics without being scared she would hurt them. (the advent of EBay killed my dreams of getting rich with them.) I’m passing on something I learned over many years. The enjoyment, satisfaction, and profits of collectibles never could match the all out fun of enjoying using them. So if you must collect, collect only things you like to use. Then use them, hard.
You may enjoy possessing and looking and holding but it’s never equal to kick-out-the-jambs playing.
