...and that's EXACTLY what my buddy Dave said when he found a 1919 wheatie that was basically a blackened blob. He was all proud of it, took it to a local coin guy, and the guy told him the same thing about "historical value." So Dave left it crusty for like two years. Then one day he dropped it on his kitchen floor, the crud chipped off, and underneath was a beautiful lustrous copper that graded damn near mint state. He still talks about how dumb he felt listening to that flea market wisdom. Point is, some dirt is just dirt, and some history is just a century of pocket lint and spilled soda. Don't let some old guy with a tray of junk talk you out of your own judgment.

Man, people really be out here acting like writing is rocket science sometimes. Good for you if it works, but some of us just type and pray and it comes out fine.

Whoa, wait, two years? That's wild. I mean, I get it because I have a drawer full of tools I never think about until I need them, but that label is kind of the whole point of owning a torque wrench. You trust it to be the one thing that doesn't lie to you, and then it goes and does exactly that. I'm probably way overdue on a few of mine too, to be honest. It's scary to think how many bikes I've built or fixed up that might have been riding on luck instead of the right spec. Makes me want to go through my whole box tonight and check every single sticker now.