Oulaw thanks for the info. I am aware of the years and time periods, I guess to ask my question better. Why do people tend to LOVE the V stuff while not really being too much into the other time periods as much? Is it just because of the fact they are post WW2 and people like them because they were their grandfathers and fathers tools?
If you look at from a Historical perspective, the early-30's to the late-30's were the Depression Era years. (Stock Market crash in 1929)
Take a look at the graphs on wiki:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Depression_in_the_United_States
1933 unemployment was up to 25% that slowly dropped down to 15% until the start of WW2. . No jobs = no money to buy tools--and that means both personal hand tools and no tools for factory use since there was no work and limited mfgr. production. No one buying tools of that era meant low sales.
1939 saw a ramp up in industry during pre-war, but then after 1941 many tool users went off to the military to fight the war. Money was still tight, as was metal for tools, so no tool users and scarcity meant low sales volume.
When everyone came back from WW2 (mainly men--duh) after 1945 and the economy began growing again, more tools began selling off the shelfs (and by the 1945 and up soldier return years, the V series was in production).
With no money and limited buyers of that early era, tools made in the mid 30's to mid 40's would be less then everywhere due to the factors mentioned above.
So historically, low demand creates low supply. Low supply means, well, scarcity.
I can't wait in 60 years from kow where someone will ask the same question , but in the form of "I love Made in USA tools, but why doesn't anyone use them any more?"
If they're not around, it's not easy to use them, now is it? Hahahahaha.