What is the oldest thing you own that you still use daily?
Just wondering what passes the test of time? I personally have an old Casio watch and if you count fruit trees, those are pretty old too.
I have a cheap plastic hair brush my mum bought me over 40 years ago when I was about 6 or 7, she said it cost a dollar and surprised I still use it daily.
There is nothing wrong with it, so it lives on.
Our staircase was built over two centuries ago, and still does its job!
Mmm, delicious non OSHA-compliance. No handrails, no problem!
I'm fascinated with those joints. Are they nailed at all, or is it just held together by gravity, friction and the exterior walls?
I'm in my 40s now, so I guess my body.
Most of it is a decade old at best ^^
sauce: https://book.bionumbers.org/how-quickly-do-different-cells-in-the-body-replace-themselves/
I've got a couple of cast iron skillets from the early sixties that I use pretty much every day.
I use my grandma's and great grandma's cast iron weekly.
My razor is from 1912.
I came here to say my safety razor from 1932 that I use daily, but you beat me by a couple decades!
Straight razor or safety?
Safety single edge. The only razor I’ve ever been comfortable with.
Gold Gillette Aristocrat 1947 checking in.
A classic to be sure!
I've been using the same coffee cup almost every day for the last 50+ years.
Yup, I'm old.
I can’t believe how automatic it is!
My grandfather loved to collect old shit just for the fun of repairing it, that's kind of how I got into my own hobby.
I remember fixing one of these with him, and actually we made a fuckload of toast because it was pretty cool.
Spine-tingling toast!
Relevant technology connections https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OfxlSG6q5Y
Ok fuck me I need to find one of these on ebay
You lucky bastard!
My dad was friends with the guy who designed the Aztec Hotel. He didn't want regular light fixtures originally, so he came up with an idea for lighted columns, and he made a prototype table-lamp sized. The was in 1925. The prototype is in my living room and I use it every day.
Interesting, got any pics?
I have clothes that are more or less 20 years old. Kitchen utensils that are 25 years old. But I think my body is the oldest thing I have that still works, more or less.
Same. I'd like to find a replacement for the left foot (or at least the left big toe) but I can't find any, anywhere.
I was going to say clothes as well. I haven’t really changed shape much in the last 15yrs. So if it’s still in one piece, I still wear it.
My violin was made in 1614, but to be honest I use my practice violin daily and use that as my concert violin, and tune and play it weekly.
How paranoid are you about dropping it or falling while holding it? That's literally what I think every time I hear about instruments like this.
That would be among the few things left over from the age of knights and the black death (or the end of that period, anyway), and even modern instruments can be unbelievably valuable.
Not particularly. The wood sat in the harbor nearest to Brefchia to age for two years before Magini ever even touched it. It's pretty sturdy all things considered. The violin held up better than the original bow and wooden case. We fumigated all of them because they had become infected with bow mites. The original case and bow are in the attic, mostly she currently lives in a crushed velvet lined climate controlled case. Not playing her would do more damage than breaking her out and keeping her in tune.
Expensive piece of kit! I assume you're a professional musician?
Sadly, no. I was told by my cousins, who are professional violinists, that I had the ability, but they didn't inform me of that until I was already 25 and a chef.
I inherited the thing because I found it in my grandma's closet when I was 6 and helping her clean her room. I asked her who owned it, and she said it was my dead grandpa's violin. So I asked again, then who's is it? She thought about it and said "I dunno, I guess whichever of you grandkids learns to play it first."
My ass. No way. How do you know it's authentic, let alone date it to that time period? Secondly show us!
Lloyd's of London authenticated the tag inside, and the age. If I remember to, I will post a picture when I pull it out this next week.
A manual coffee grinder from about 1910.
I figure I need it because if the electric’s broke I’ll need coffee to fix it.
Wow thats great.
We use an old bullet that was gifted us to grind our coffee. It used to do a whole lot more...but we got a better blender. It works well and its easy to clean.
I don't use it daily, more like several times per week - a wooden cutting board I made in school about 44 years ago.
Thats awesome. Always wanted to make a cutting board.
I have a 100 year old porcelain doll. Her name is Agnes, she has real human hair and is definitely cursed. Does that count?
Other than that, I have a pre-WW2 windup clock that still works perfectly. It's a solid steel brick.
A Leatherman wave I purchased when I first started working and they had just come out. Blade holds its edge and everything still works smoothly. Plus I have worked out a one handed flick to fully open the pliers.
Wave plus owner. Can atleast confirm one handed flick does the trick. I get comments everytime someone sees me open it from my pocket clip.
I have a ninja turtle cereal bowl from when I was a kid that I still use. It's from 1988.
How faded is it?
It's suprisingly in great condition. The only sign of wear is the paint on the eyes has chipped off in some areas.
I have a refrigerator from around 1988 or 1989 that still works perfectly. Around 1999, it stopped working, so we bought a new one. We didn't throw away the old fridge because we used it to store plates and cutlery, but we were sure that it was completely broken. Then, last year, a technician saw it and told us that only a component needed to be replaced for it to work again. Lo and behold, the damn thing was revived, and after a two-decade slumber it worked again as if no time had passed.
Wrist watch that's made from an old pocket watch.
Waltham watch company: 1895.
I've seen you around before. Cheers! Show us the watch... I love old time pieces.
A Kenwood amplifier made in Japan in the 80s.
2007 Toyota Corolla.
Osprey backpack I bought about 12yr ago.
I bought a $5 leather belt 20+ years ago.
My keyboard is almost middle aged
IBM Model M. I bought 3 at a garage sale in the late 90s, 1 for use 2 for backups, and I've never needed the backups
A Gillette open comb safety razor from the 1930s. But it's had the handle replaced with a Gillette tech handle from the 40s.
In an image search, I found someone selling the exact same Frankenrazor which leads me to believe this may have been a popular mod back in the day.
I use those shark blades. Just the right sharpness and they last me 2 weeks each.
I've got a gillete aristocrat from 1947 in the box with the original blades. It's gold. Such a nice shave.
I have an orange sweater that I got for a christmas present all the way back in 2001 that, despite nearly daily use a my "lounging around at home sweater", is still in almost perfect shape except for the colours fading a bit in the places that see a lot of robbing (elbows, etc...)
House is 123 years old, I have a couple of cast-iron pans that are civil war era, still get regular use.
I live in a refurbished barn on a farm. Age unknown but the imperial bricks and timbers used hint at Victorian. Love it. I have to accept Rats in the exterior walls, attic and the first floor cassette, and the house being cold even in summer due to the stone floor, and the related heating bill. Regardless, it's a better place to be than any modern house and I'm happy here. It provides inspiration. That might be the radon slowly killing my brain cells though.
Ugh, I grew up in a house of similar age. It's amazing how outdoors a nominally indoor space can be. The layers of history those places have can be neat, though.
My "TV" is a (modern) 36" LCD computer monitor hooked to a 2011 Dell Latitude E6400.
My washing machine is a workhorse from 1997. Can't say I use it daily but multiple times per week.
Some of the wiring in my house is still original from '55, if that counts.
Might wanna have that wiring in your house checked out, that 50s wiring can be a little on the sketchy side.
Source: am electrician
AFAIK, it's only two outlets on the far end of the house. The only things I have plugged into them are some lamps (with LED bulbs) and phone chargers. The rest of the house was re-wired in ~2013 or so. Not sure why previous owner didn't do those last few outlets, but at least the rest of the house is up to code.
When my grandma passed away, we had to sell the family farm that had been in the family since the 1930s. While mounting the massive undertaking of cleaning out 100 years of stuff from 2 houses and 3 barns, I stumbled upon 2 old wooden cheese boxes being used to store screws from a brand called Blue Ribbon Cheese. I googled it and that was how Pabst Blue Ribbon survived prohibition. One sits in my sock drawer with a few pocket knives for me to choose from each morning.
I don't use it daily, but I also have a 3 foot long homemade level with my great grandfather's initials carved in it. He died in the 1950s but it could be older than that.
The foundation of the building I live in is from the 1880’s. Does that count?
1640s here!
.uk
What, it's not built on a Roman wall? Boooring. /s
It's crazy to me how commonplace truly deep history is over the pond. Like, there's been multiple different cities in the same place at different times, basically.
I still use a first gen iPod.
Your mom
My jansport backpack is probably almost a decade old by now. Same with some of the t-shirts I have but they can get kind of smelly if I sweat too much.
Jansport, yep have a green, leather-bottomed one 20 years old still used weekly. One zipper is sometimes a bit sticky.
A stove spatula my mom had in the 1940s. Not daily but I use it routinely. I hand wash it instead of putting it through the dishwasher.
We also have my wife's grandmother's old, completely out-of-tune standup piano. Nobody in our house plays piano. We use it to take up space, accumulate clutter, and make sure that area of the room is unusable.
I read that as "stone spatula" and thought that thing was ancient
Cow tools
An old generic pocket knife I bought in a mall shop back in 2001.
My grand father straight razor. It's at least 80 years old.
I still have the black wooden chest my great-grandmother and her son (my grandfather who only died last year) kept all their belongings in when they fled westwards from the Russian army in 1940s Germany. The chest itself was probably built quite a while before that, but I don't know how old it is exactly.
I fold up my pants and place them on there every night.
Daily? Probably the coffee mug I've had for 15 years.
My favorite mug was a gift from my first girlfriend, in my sophomore year of high school. My wife hates that I still have it over 20 years later, but I just like it because it’s fucking huge. I can fit like half a pot of coffee in it. It doesn’t even have the original printed design on it anymore; It has worn down to plain white ceramic.
I have a drip coffee maker that's gotta be almost 40 now. It was given to me by an older family member when I moved into a new apartment. It still works fine as far as I can tell...
My apartment is from 1865 but "own" is a little tenuous... Beyond that it's probably down to probably 20 year old cutlery or my tv stand which is actually a crate that's around 100 years old
I have a Stanley mug, bought it in 96 when I was working in construction. It's been kicked off scaffolding more times than I can count.
Used so much that the green started coming off ten+ years ago. So I sanded it off and it now has a brushed stainless look.
The lip cover has been gone for at least 15 years, worked well when it was there though. The mug is far too big to fit in any cup holder and has been tossed around mercilessly in every truck I have ever owned without spilling a drop up until the day it broke off.
The lid has chew marks where sharp puppy teeth of my long dead forever friend had himself a munch.
I can't see ever replacing it and I don't see it ever breaking to the point I'll need to.
I also have a knife in the running that would fit the question.
I have a chisel from 1910, and a vice from the 1890s, the barn doors I open to get at them are from the early 1800s, and the well that our water comes from is probably a hundred years older than that. Most of the doors in our house come from its first renovation, in about 1880.
My house is 1880s so that maybe, or I've got a few very old chisels and a spokeshave that are a comparable age
Common sense probably.
Most of the things I use are a few years old but nothing crazy old. Some t-shirts are maybe 10-15 years old in some cases, I guess that’s old for some. I have a lot of hand tools that are maybe 50-100 years old but they get less use.
My mechanical keyboard. I bought a ducky shine 0 with mx blues when I first got into PC gaming about 11 years ago. I want to upgrade to something fancier but it just never dies!
Ducky shine zero! I have mine from probably around the same time and it's incredibly well built. Not my daily keyboard (I use an ergodox) but it is the keyboard for my gaming PC. I have the mx browns
Not daily my l but I've gone hunting every year with a rifle from 1971 I think it said on the licence of the old man who gave it to me.
My car’s 25 years old. Can’t think of anything else.
About 15 years go I had to go somewhere that was much much colder than I anticipated, so we made an emergency drive to the closest town, and I bought the warmest jacket they had. It was like $300, but I never regretted it. Its the most practical, comfy, jacket ive ever owned and doesn't look half bad - even has a hoody you can clip on and off. Got me through snow as well, but its not water proof.
Love that jacket.
A spoon. One Sterling Silver spoon that I have used in my coffee cup since 1978. It has survived every move. It knows more about me than any human on Earth. It has become so ubiquitous that I get really annoyed if I misplace it and I will look for it before that first cup.
I have no idea why.
This makes me want to build more stable rituals. I'm always changing things up.
My razor handle was manufactured in the 50s
Same. 1956 Gillette Super Speed. They used to make great stuff.
47 gillete aristocrat. There's alot of old razors in this post.
A plastic stepping stool that is probably older than me. It holds a subwoofer off the ground so that the downstairs neighbours don't get thumped too hard (they have never complained).
My back. Its getting creeky though.
Honorable mention for my truck. 1997 F-150. Turns 28 this year, just put a rebuilt motor in it, hoping for another 20 years.
A pair of toe-nail clippers my grandfather gifted me. I'm guessing late 1940s. As far as I can tell, it was something he bought from the on-base military store as things were winding down after WW2. It's rugged in a way you wouldn't expect - it was clearly built to last, well, indefinitely. Has this excellent leather carrying case in military olive green that is also wildly over-designed. Not flashy, just built to last.
It really makes me appreciate - we used to know how to make things here (USA). And we were so good at it, even the dumb little things could be built to last.
The US still does build things, just mostly expensive things.
My house was built in 1955, same year my parents were born. I’m not going to count that though. I have a pair of high speakers from the early 70s that get daily use.
I have a folding card table that currently serves as my desk. I don't know how old it is -- 1960s, maybe, based on the style of the brand/sales label on the back? It's almost certainly older than I am, at least... Got it from my uncle back when I was in college and its still working well enough that I haven't bothered to replace it.