San Francisco: The best city to make things

The silversmiths at Biro and Sons keep it old school with processes that date back hundreds of years. The business has been family-owned and operated since it started in San Francisco in 1945. And though the crew does some custom fabrication, the clientele is mostly an older generation that grew up with silver and wants to keep heirlooms in tip-top shape.

"[It's] a lot of restoration of flatware sets," said Martin Biro, one of the shop's owners.

He said the city is a great place for his type of business.

"There's an artisan circle of support in the city," he said. And while new technology exists, like electric polishing machines, Biro isn't interested.

"We don't have the need for it because [our] work is one-of-a-kind restoration work that reflects the processes of the period it was made," he said.

An old family heirloom, for example, would be treated with a process more recognizable in a chemistry textbook from the 1950s than with a machine backed by software.

But the company hasn't completely escaped Silicon Valley. Five years ago, Biro and Sons got its first computer.

"That was a big step for a company like us," Biro said.