Why is a lot of modern made stuff so poorly made ........ regardless of price?

Brithunter

Well-Known Member
Got a small package in the post this morning and the contents put a smile on the old dragons face. Just a simple thing it was too. Whilst browsing a certain auction site I spotted a vintage/old garden hand weeding fork made as they should be.

Over the years after the very old we we had went missing, I think she binned it with a load of weeds one day :doh:, we have brought several hand weeding forks and to a fault they have all be rubbish. Most modern hand weeding forks are just stamped flat sheet with a tang welded on. First time one puts a bit of pressure on to get that dratted weed out and the tines bend. We have had to take at least two back as the welds broke. Have tried Stainless, absolutely bloody useless, in fact we have one that needs to go back but cannot recall which garden centre it came from that's a Joseph Bentley one and the company was not much help when we contacted them. Also have a Spear & Jackson Stainless Digging spade that is next to useless. If the ground is in anyway firm the blade flexes instead of digging in Yet dad's old worn spade cuts into the earth as it should. We brought the stainless ones as someone suggested the mud would stick to them less and so be easier for him Well that was a lie. We brought the boarder spade as it's sightly smaller so we thought it would be easier........................ nope.

I really wonder if the people who design these thing ever try them in roper use and not just a box with some potting compost tipped into it in a shed.

To my mind the same cheapness and poor selection of materials has spilt over to firearms. Just read these nd other forums and see just how my are having issues with new modern made and design guns. Perhaps it's time to stop and take stock and perhaps a step back.
 
I get all my gardening tools from boot fairs (flea markets) for those same reasons, but I have not found an old gun there yet (except in the USA).
Martin
 
Good point.I have a selection of old Elwell impliments, wonderfully made and proper tools.By all accounts now very collectable. The brushing hook is so well balanced and a delight to use and takes a and holds a wicked edge. Must say on more modern stuff I have Spear and Jackson tools which appear good as are Sandvik cutting/pruning tools.However all my best stuff is ancient and was made in the times when people had to cultivate their own food.

I think most either aquired at house clearance autions or at markets years ago.

D
 
It may be worth looking into how much these items cost when they were new in relation to purchasing power at the time. I suspect you'd find that most high quality stuff (and the poor quality items will have vanished in the interim) was expensive when it was made, as is the case now. You generally tend to pay for quality.
 
PM are you saying the Joseph Bentley and Spear & Jackson are cheap tools?

We brought those known makes expecting the quality to be there but sadly it's not. I needed a digging fork looked at new ones and the design is total crap. They don't even taper the tines except the last 1/2" maybe. Luckily I picked up an ex MOD one made in 1964 from Repco. Proper fork that will likely see me out. Better do a few booties and see if I can find a decent spade to go with it.
 
PM are you saying the Joseph Bentley and Spear & Jackson are cheap tools?

Not at all, partly because I know nothing about them. I'm just offering a possible explanation for why it might appear that manufacturing and material standards have declined over time. I suspect that if you look at prices in their historical context, quality has always come at a certain cost and that cheap stuff was never that good.
 
A while back I developed high pressure nozzles for power washers. The company we supplied them to had two ranges, "hobby" and "professional".
Life expectancy for the hobby version was max 30 working hours vs the professional had to be able to function over 700 working hours before any wear would decrease performance.
The Nozzles we developed would last 1200hrs vs hardened stainless steel being way under 100hrs.
The funny thing was that the bling hobby set was not much cheaper than a simple professional set.
Bit like Bosch blue and Bosch green.

edi
 
I know nothing about the Bosche ranges but with tools I try to get the best I can afford even if it means buying used.

Interesting about he nozzles we have a I suppose hobby class pressure washer and I never gave the nozzle a thought :oops: mind you it's not been used that much we are not ones for hosing/scrubbing everything down. It last got used to other year fro cleaning algy from the patio and some terracota pots.
 
ts all made in china to last 2minutes everything is made in china and crap
atb tom

One thing I will say is that the Chinese make crap because that is what we ask them to make - in other words big companies probably mostly based in the "West" ask them to build stuff down to a price. I've worked with some Chinese engineers and have no doubt that if the western companies who supply you and me gave them a decent budget or asked them to build something of top quality then they could do so. They don't build rubbish because that is all they are capable of but rather because that is what some big "Western" company can make most profit from.
 
I run a small company selling a very expensive hand made piece of lighting equipment. I offer no written warranty or guarantee. I simply tell my clients that if it ever goes wrong I will fix it. If it fails due to a consumable item, i.e. the lamp, and it has given fair service they pay. If it fails because of bad workmanship or faulty parts I pay. No time limit on this as I build it to work and not fail. I have been in business for thirty years and my father before me for another thirty, and never had to advertise.

I once went to look a Morgan car ( never did buy one). I liked the way they built cars, changing steel components that rusted for stainless that don't. I shared my philosophy with them, "make it better, not cheaper".

Sorry Brit, we don't make spades or forks.
 
I agree buckup, "make it better, not cheaper", quality & workmanship is just not there any more.

Now appears everything is mass produced for the consumer.

Bottom line is, to cut corners and to hell with all ( cash turnover )

So beware, buy sh*te / buy twice.
 
Blame it on the majority of tight fisted brits that want cheap rather then quality.
Kitchen knives being a good example, the average consumer would prefer to buy half a dozen cheap pressed sheet steel knives over a period of years rather then a quality forged steel item that will last a lifetime and works out cheaper!

Ian.
 
:rofl: Well I am still using the same French Kitchen knives I brought when I first go my own place. As I said earlier I buy the best I can. Now it's getting difficult not to buy stuff made in China etc as that's all we are being offered in a lot of cases.
They say GDP is down well of course it is as thanks to the likes of Mandelson one helluva lot of manufacturing moved to the far east with government help. They sold off others so the Chinese and Indians.. Just how was that going to help OUR GDP?

Not doubt their bank accounts got topped up for the nice deal.
 
I agree. I wouldnt be without my Wusthof Knives in the kitchen sharp and balanced cost a pretty penny but as good today as the day I bought them same goes for my Swarovski bins. Look after it well and it will look after you.
 
I know a number of foreigners that think we Brits worship "the old"

Everything older is better. Houses, furniture, clothes, just about everything was better once before.

It's a point you hear raised regularly.

Houses certainly are not as strongly constructed but they are warmer, more energy efficient and easy to maintain. Furniture well yeah modern stuff other than at the very top end is pants. Clothes too are not as durable but think of the modern waterproof fabrics that breath and who hasnt got a light fleece?
 
I dislike Modern builds intensely. Our place is only 13 years old and and it's more problem than the old place it replace except for one thing. This one is on a pile and raft so should not subside like the old one did. Every winter were have mouse and rat problems the new place just lets them in. The loft space is unusable because they skimped on proper joists and used the "new idea" of many small joists. of course it means one cannot use the loft space and what with the daft ventilation the chances of pipes freezing are not about ten times as likely. UPVC windows may be the in thing but I don't recall them saying they need replacing every 10 years or so when they were pushing the damned things and the bees knees :mad:..

The old bungalow had been cavity insulated and loft insulated it just need the rest double glazed and it would have been a much better place than this one.

The flat I lived in down south was warm in winter and fairly cool in summer that was built in 65. They had insulated the walls and the roof space and double glazed it and once they ditched the storage rads for gas fired heating with rads is was cheap to run to.

Once again we are being fobbed off with cost cutting measures as improvements in building. The small joist and strusses are simple because smaller trees can be felled and they are cheaper than bigger trees. Plastic windows are cheaper than hard wood ones. and the properties are meant to be maintence heavy after a while to further boost the building trade.
 
I agree I spent some 16yrs doing up a country cottage and .5 acre of garden. Outside stuff was either stainless or hot dipped galvanised. Wood double treated. I have a philosophy that there are two ways to do a job the correct way and another way. Also its false acconomy to skimp on materials.

Sadly we got to a state when we know the price of everyting but nothing of their value

D
 
My new flat was designed by a German architect and built by Poles. It has all these brilliant and staggeringly un-British details like a little hatch in the wall so that you can access the boiler's plumbing WITHOUT SMASHING THE PLASTERWORK AND RIPPING THE KITCHEN OUT! Amazing.
 
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