Yeah I have to agree with everyone else on the steel. I mean yeah the steel back then was fine and what not but now their are amazing steels that can do awesome things and with the advent of science we can better look into the percentages of alloying elements and molecule structure which they didn't have or had a limited knowledge about it or knew about it but didn't know what to do with the information. I think that it is just like say Williams Soap. Used to be a great soap but now it is nothing like it use to be. Not saying that Dovo's today are like Williams soap today. I absolutely love my Dovo and the edge it gets. It's just that there is some "assembly" required I think. And again I think that back in the day pride and customer expectation and honoring your word had a lot to do with it. Today they might say that it is "shave ready" which may be true...it very well could shave a new born baby's hair but that might be about it.