Comment by bluGill
13 hours ago
As an older folk, I perceive 50 year old tools as likely worn out and in desperate need of replacement. However often nobody makes the tool anymore and so we are willing to spend a lot to maintain them instead. (I drive a 25 year old car - this is only possible because I can get a rebuilt transmission, but my maintenance costs over the last 10 years would have bought much newer/nicer used car, and I'm getting close to where I could buy a new car)
The other possibility is the tool isn't used much and modern accountants would never allow you to buy it in the first place because of all the cash tied up. (that is the work the tool did over those 50 years wasn't enough to pay for the cost of the tool and the space to store it)
I was recently talking to the head clockmaker at the Chelsea Clock Company, one of the very few, if not the only, remaining original New England clock companies still operating. He showed me some pictures of clock making tools being used during WWII, and then the very same tools in perfect shape still being used today. He also had one tool that dated back to when they were the Boston Clock Company (circa 1894) that was still in active use. In this new world of disposable tools, it was pretty neat to see.