I would not be happy with it either. I see that Smith and Wesson is currently owned by Saf-T Hammer, which is publicly traded.
Publicly traded companies are forced to serve the interests of investors by maximizing profits through continual cost cutting. Failure to do so results in stiff fines. Cost cutting can sometimes be done without negatively impacting quality, but too often quality suffers.
I worked for many years as a rank and file worker on an assembly line, then spent several years as an inspector in the quality control department. Time and time again I observed that when I began to see very few defects in the product the company saw it as a signal to eliminate a few assembly positions, move portions of those jobs to other workers, and speed the line up.
They seemed to feel that maximum productivity wasn't being met unless a certain percentage of junk was going out the door.
To me, this is ignorant and short sighted. In putting quality first, big profits might not be realized in the short term, but in the long term the customer will appreciate an excellent product, and the company will make an excellent profit and endure for generations.
Too many old and trusted companies try to cash in on their name, but are no longer worthy of our trust.
. In turn I say it is rather suggestive of your own character you would rather do this than examine the content of the post itself, regardless of how new I may be to this particular forum. The fact of the matter is that these new laser engravings on the "Classics" series are simply unacceptable. They have been since November of 2022 at the earliest per my own personal experience. This is something anyone interested in purchasing the classics should be made aware of. Now, I am not in any way besmirching the actual mechanical quality or function of these new firearms in anyway as many of the modern S&Ws are certainly superior in many ways mechanically to older models. I am however shining light on an aesthetic issue that for many of us, especially those of us who would be interested in paying hundreds of dollars more for a blue gun over a stainless one, would be interested in knowing. With that said, I have not seen really any place online where these new laser engravings are being mentioned and rightfully put to shame. That is why I made this account and this post on this forum as this place would likely be the place where any discussion on new developments when it comes to S&W would receive the most viewership and widest dissemination. Now I have lurked this forum for some time and eventually would have made an account anyway to purchase from the classifieds section; plus it's nice to be able to view images. I've been active on Berettaforum and gunboards for awhile now as well. In any case, you can continue to doubt my authenticity and I will continue to bring these amateurish laser engravings on the S&W Classics series to light.
