Boats are a perfect example. Boats built today can be the best there are, but their design and craftsmanship is based on a long past(egotistical designers will scoff).

I peeled a century or more of paint off the entrance door to an 1850's Greek Revival I'm restoring this week. Even at this age, this raised panel door was a very experienced design. I get lost in old plank doors, some 4-500 years old in the EU. They were a new design once too.

The first panel doors centuries ago likely raised many eyebrows. 'It's so light, it can't be strong enough, it doesn't look right.'But in fact, it was a better door than the plank door, tighter, more stable, easier to install and maintain. Yet the panel door evolved from the plank door, still a good door on some ancient buildings.

As the original pine surfaces, I see the wonderful details. The thick old growth stock, the pegged hand cut mortise and tenons, still tight(tap the pegs flush again). A wonderful eye designed this door. A perfect rail and stile size and took advantage of the thickness to cut the perfect angled deep, deep bevel, that so nicely frames the floating panels. That the panels are still tight and not split says so much about the design and craftsmenship. Light seems to play with surfaces that I know is not by chance.

Nothing at Home Depot compares, but, I could find many craftsmen who could build as fine a door, even better, today.

However, this is an icon worth preserving. I'll even re-install the old steel rim-lock a metal worker knocked together, even though the 'skeleton key' is long gone. This work of art is a benchmark in time that many will see from the sidewalk this summer.