There are many attributes or assigns which have to do with various orders or dimensions of 'Quality'.

All in all, my own opinion, would be that the pinnacle or plateau of S&W's integrated and harmonious height quality wise, was from their first Break-Open Large Frames in the early 1870s, up to about WWI or so.

From there, quality remained very high if very slighly less high in some ways than before...quality of Metalurgy is thought to have improved a little, so, some give and take...but, from say, WWI to the advent of WWII, 'quality' was still very high, just not globally quite as high as the 1870s - WWI time period.

After WWII, quality was high, but not as high as the sort of chapter before...and, it enjoyed it's plateau till the early 1960s, then went down a few nothches, and or was somewhere between okay-enough and not so good...and, has not come back up enough to speak of, since.

Yes, one can find early Model 10s or other which were fitted and assembled well and finished well in their way and so on, and, if you put them next to a Model 1899 K Frame, the difference in overall quality, becomes glaring or even painful.

True excellence, and, 'good enough' can both function well mechanically, be reliable, and satisfy... but one immediately elevated the regard of the informed onlooker, and, the other is accepted or is respected in a somewhat different way.


High, even unsurpassed Excellence, would characterise their offerings from the early 1870s through WWI.

Excellent, from WWI through WWII.

Pretty much excellent to at least very good, from WWII to the early '60s.

Merely "Good-enough" ( or sometimes not even merely good enough ) would characterise S&W's offerings since the early 1960s.

When they cared about excellence first, the money and reputation followed.

Once they cared about money first, mediocrity or worse, hyperbole and gimmicks and self referential advertising schtick followed.

Same with endless else of our culture and it's artifact exemplars.