'Vintage' Cappers

Since it's sometimes easy to think that older things were made better than many modern products, I've started to consider a 'vintage' capper. I'm kind of done with the wing capper and have found that there are all cast iron vintage cappers available on ebay for around the same as a Super Agata or Colonna.

Thoughts?

Nothing wrong with the old stuff. I prefer the rusty stamped steel bench capper I got from an old homebrewer who listed a grab bag of stuff on Craigslist. I might have paid $5, if anything at all (the guy just kept pulling stuff out of the basement and saying "here you go, I don't need this either!")

The ubiquitous plastic wing cappers have a nice pressing action to them but having to use two hands on the tool is annoying. The "vintage" single action bench cappers may take a little more oomph to crimp the cap but they're easier to load because you can lower the press with one hand while holding the bottle with the other hand.

I have one I paid a whopping $12 for. It works great too!

So do the vintage cappers have the nice magnet for holding the cap to the bell before you press down?

Mine does. It's probably from the mid-'70s or so, based on the age of all the other stuff I got in the deal.

Mine does not. I just put the cap on top of the bottle, then press it on.

I did end up buying the "Big Ben" vintage capper on ebay (http://www.ebay.com/itm/ws/eBayISAP...68&ssPageName=ADME:L:OC:US:3160#ht_717wt_1163). I'm quite happy with it... too bad I couldn't find it locally!

I got an old one that a friend gave me as a gift.

Both of mine are from the early 60's. Neither have a magnet.