I was actually wondering if it would be possible to pick up some vintage items in the USA. It seems thrifting is the equivalent but just a bit different. Like in the UK and in the Netherlands there are a lot of Good Will and Red Cross stores around. Something to explore! And of course I am aiming at finding some real vintage USA made stuff that interested the men.
Vintage style
Different types of molds / casting moulds
Around the 1970’s there were only a handful of mold makers, producing starter kits and series of molds. We will look into them more closely below:
Zinnbrigade by Schildkröt
Winter 1970. Only a few channels on TV. Fireplace lit. You are 14 years old and finaly your dad is home for a longer period of time since business is slow due to bad weather. Out of nowhere your dad asks if you feel like doing something together. You go like “sure, like what?”. Dad says it involves fire, dangers tempretures of about 300-400 degrees Celsius. So you are like “NICE”, because your interest is woken. Dad ups the ante and says it also involves manslaughter, canons and battle. Now you are really intrigued (?)! “TELL ME, TELL ME. So dad explanes you are going to building your own army from scratch…together! Exactly the way you want them to! You are going to make toy soldiers.
What is toy soldier making about?
Basically it is about 4 steps. Casting, Preparing, Painting and Display.
The Maestri Company
Founded in Milano, Italy by Romeo Maestri in 1919 the Company first manufactured various kinds of seals like string safety seals, seals for mills and post parcels. Maestri’s wife and two children helped to run the Company. His son Bruno Meastri introducing a new product in the 1930’s. The office stapler. He launched the RO-MA (Romeo Maestri) stapling plier, followed by TENAX and PROTOFIX desk stapler (shown below and also for sale here).
About the Bang and Olufsen Company
Svend Olufsen (born 1897) and his friend Peter Bang (born 1900), Both from Denmark started working together from the attic on the Olufsen family house late 1924. In 1925 they registered their business in the city of Struer and the B&O Company was a fact. Mr. Bang did the tech and production side and Mr. Olufsen did the sales and money side.
They worked hard and made some significant discoveries to which they scored some patents. Sound and later images made up the bulk of their products leading to radio’s and later television and sounds sets. Yet they also made electric razors until the middle of the 1950’s. Svend Olufsen died at age 52 in 1949 and Peter Bang died age 57 in 1957. Their Company kept going strong though. To make this more clear, find below the 1978 advertisements from B&O and Philips. There are definitely some differences in approach.
When a man is buying his stuff he unconsiously takes a few rules into account. First shopping must be easy, when there are not a lot of shops close together then better bought online. Second his stuff must have a good price-to-quality ratio. Third the stuff must have a practical function. And last, it must be cool. By cool we mean real man stuff, which of course difference from man to man. When it is cool enough, the first rules do not apply anymore (and the second rule can also be overlooked). Anyway….looking into vintage man stuff is the next logical step because it is mostly interesting and cool, do read our article on why to buy vintage. When you established that vintage man stuff is the way to go. Then the next question is, what vintage things should every man have?
About every year I find a new serie to watch! Series seem to get better and better and the best series are not only made by Networks like HBO who we have to thank for Game of Thrones and FOX that produces the Walking Dead (and Fear the Walking Dead). In addition we now see that Netflix under the Starz Label produces great series like Spartacus and Black Sails.
New series by Netflix – Starz – American Gods
And now we have American Gods! Check the trailer if you have not become acquainted with it yet. The leading character goes by the name of Shadow Moon (no…really…I kid you not). He has the worst kind of wife….one that cheats on him with his friend and won’t stay dead either. He is by the way also the guy that plays “Lincoln the Grounder” in the series The 100.
What has American Gods got to do with Checkers?
In this first season (episodes 3 & 4) a good old checker board makes it’s entry. Checker used is also called Draughts, but just read the article to get up to speed: Bar games that we used to play: Checkers or Draughts. Pretty cool to see that even the gods like to play! Vintage Man Stuff Style that is: Smoking and in an old shirt!
Suburbs in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s were the promise of a happy life for all people in America. Specially when you were not rich (yet) this was a part of town you could build your life from. This is the setting for the movie Suburbicon. A film produced by George Cloony and starring Matt Damon. See trailer below.
What starts off as a happy life got quickly sucked into a mafia-situation. Matt Damon seeks the solution to this situation in violence with a decent amount of theorizing from behind his vintage desk. The way he goes about his violence is understandable in his situation and his handling the situation often makes you laugh.
How to make your social time into quality time?
Time off is great, time spend with your friends even better. When enjoying time with your friends, why not make it an experience? With a few vintage items you can create a whole different ambiance. when these items are interactive you are adding a entire different layer of fun, vintage fun.
Grinding roasted coffee beans is hard work when doing it by hand. So let’s call it a manly job! I like to share some information here on the art of coffee grinding for a great cup of coffee….vintage style.
History on the Coffee grinder
The first coffee grinders were probably generic grinders for all kinds of herbs, dating back to the 15th century and perhaps earlier…being downsides mills an all. The “first real coffee grinders” date back to 1600-something in England/Holland which was a direct link with the world wide overseas trading they did. Spreading from these countries to the rest of the world. These by now higly antique grinders are not much use in the every day proces of slow-coffee brewing.