That's Pomp & Circumstance Spaghetti.The history of the Seatec factory ...
The first relevant thing to notice is the location, in the northern italian Province of Brescia. That's the historical firearms district, where some of the most prestigious firearm factories are located, some of which have been there for 5 centuries: Beretta, Perazzi, Bernardelli, Tanfoglio, Breda, Franchi, Gamba and countless others.
For those who don't know much of the firearms scene, just one hint: at the last 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, fifteen medals (15 Olympic medals) in the various shooting sports have been won by shooters using guns made in the Brescia district (Perazzi, Beretta and Gamba in the order). This says it all.
How does Seatec relate to this reality? Seatec factory employs people who have been in the firearm crafting for generations. And even now that thay make spearguns, they're still the same poeple who have been crafting some of the world's best firearms for centuries.
The current Seatec's chief engineer, Valerio Grassi, has put it clear: "our spearguns are real weapons, not toys".
He himself used to be a contractor for Beretta, making triggers and other stainless steel microfusion gunparts for Beretta rifles in Grassi's family small factory, named Officine Meccaniche Rezzato (O.Me.R.).
Being an avid spearo too, Grassi started making his own custom spearguns in the early 60's, by modifying the bulky Beuchat's available at that time (who looked like JBL's: thick spears, feeble bands and rocky triggers). Initially it was only a hobby, while making firearms parts remained the core bussiness. But then Grassi's first custom modified spearguns were so much better than the standards, that he decided to make a business of it: he founded a new branch of his Omer factory, named Omersub.
Yes, it was the actual Omer: the current designer of Seatec guns used to be the founder and owner of Omer.
In a relatively short time, Omer spearfishing gear became a world wide success between the 70's and the 80's. It is said that at one point the small factory was no more capable to manage such a bigworld wide success, to the extent that, in the 90's, Valerio Grassi sold Omer to a big conglomerate, the Beta group.
Grassi's "unemployment", though, lasted only a couple of years. At sudden he founded a new society together with the Marcelli brothers, owners of a small metal craft factory near Brescia (they had been making shafts/spears for Omer in the previous years), and with another ex Omer employee, who had started his own business with a patent for polyurethane coated alluminum tubes (the actual Gabbiano barrels). That's Seatec.
Started from nothing, just from the skills of a few small craftsmen, Seatec is now slowly gaining positions in the spearfishing gear market.
And here the music starts: "Pump and circumstance". paaaa pa pa pa paaa paaa :friday
[The words go something like this: "We hate Nottingham Forest, We hate Arsenal too, We hate Leeds United but XXXXX we love you" -- insert your favourite football team's name for the XXXXX.
Cool history lesson. My favourite shotgun, by far, is my brother's Berretta 20 bore over & under - the predecessor to the very popular Silver Pigeon model (he reckons it has more expensive/better barrels/barrel technology than the silver pigeon). It would be nice to think that Valerio might have worked on it but I suspect it is too new for that
A fairly well known British gunsmith moved into a village a mile down the road from here. I did wonder if it might be worth getting him to make a speargun or trigger mech if I won the lottery!
Re. weapons v. toys, probably best not to repeat that too much. Not helpful with the bunch of prigs running our country currently. The British Olympic shooters (rifles/pistols not shotguns) where reputedly having to train abroad because of the ridiculous restrictions now in place here. It is hard to be proud of a country run like this
Darn, now you've made me want to buy a Seatec Snake 80cm!
BTW I went ahead & smoothed the edges of the wishbones notches in my Omer spear yesterday. Surprisingly quick & easy using a McKennon mini drill with a slim grinding cylinder - similar to the classic American Dremel tool. As some point, I will switch to a dyneema wishbone. Managed to catch my glove & finger last week trying to unload with a crab in one hand! I was surpised to see the Omer articulated wishbone looks jagged on its "cutting edge" (I think perhaps it came that way? I'll check my 90 to see how they compare). I also noticed that it is necessary to twist the blade (cutting edge, blade -- not good phrases for wishbones surely!) a bit vertically to get a proper positive engagement - probably part of the reason I found it so much harder to engage when I first got it (also the new spear line needed to be bent out of the way). Spaghetti can't you get the Italian companies to start using Dyneema wishbones &/or grooved spears?
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