4mo ago

What's one brand whose products you can always trust?

(I'm trying to adjust my shopping habits for quality, long-lasting goods from reputable brands. This isn't some hailcorporate thing)

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At this point none. Trademark law has been rendered null and void when a holding company can own 3/4 of the brands on the market. Go pick up a power tool off the rack at Lowe's or Home Depot and tell me where it was made. When Stanley Black & Decker source different tools for the same brand from different anonymous manufacturers...
I'm at the point where I'm going to suggest to you learn how to work wood and metal with hand tools.
- Most of the shit is made in China now, including Craftsman, Snap-on, and other traditional American tool manufacturing brands. Wera and Wiha are made in Germany, and worth the extra money if you expect your tools to last a lifetime.
  
  Wera and Wiha are both great but Craftsan and Snap-On still machine and manufacture tools in the US
  
  They haven't had their primary manufacturing in the USA for like a decade. They're just recently starting to move their manufacturing back to the USA.
  
  Craftsman, maybe, but I can drive 45 minutes from where I'm sitting right now and see the same Snap-On factory that was there 20 years ago and I sure as hell ain't in China
  
  It looks like most of their hand tools are still made in the USA. Some of their more complicated hand tools are made in Taiwan, and a lot of their power tools are made in China. When I was looking for a new screwdriver set a few years ago, the Snap-on set I saw was made in Taiwan, but as of 2023, at least according to this article, they're made in the USA. Maybe I came across an outlier in my search, or maybe they've moved all the screwdriver manufacturing back to the USA now. Anyways, I'm glad to see they're still/now making a lot of hand tools in the USA. I was really bummed by what happened to Craftsman and other former high quality American brands. If I'm remembering correctly, Sears sold the Craftsman brand to a hedge fund or VC years ago, who immediately moved all of the manufacturing to China, but continued charging American made prices, and it wasn't widely known what had happened for a little while.
- i cite from popularmechanics.com:
  As this graphic from PressureWashr.com shows, just 18 megabrands control 91 percent of the global power tools market. Of those, four companies control 48 percent.
  picture: https://hips.hearstapps.com/pop.h-cdn.co/assets/17/39/1506429411-pressha.jpg?
  
  I like how Hilti and Makita own… Hilti and Makita.
  
  I like the hilti part
  
  Inherited a Hilti Hammer drill from my dad that was used for basically everything in construction and demolition he ever did since before I was born - around 4 decades ago. It was and is the tool he and now me always go to when cheaper drills can't deal with the problem. Be it hammering through super massive concrete walls or enduring hours-long destruction sessions, it just does the job.
  Nowadays it looks like a utter piece of junk that got tumble dried with rocks, but it's as reliable as on day one.
  
  Good ol' Makita. I got locked in to that battery ecosystem but I'm not disappointed about it much.
- I got so sad when I picked up some Airwalks a few years ago, only for them to fall apart pretty quickly. Turns out they’d been bought out by some branding firm who had licensed the name out to whoever wanted to make them on the cheap. So yeah, Airwalks used to be one of the big names in skateboarding shoes with Vans and DC, and now they’re dog shit.
- Or buy Festool.
  
  sure let me go take out a loan for a biscuit joiner.
  
  I know, right? I have one of their sanders, and while it's an absolutely amazing sander, the price was eye-watering, and the sanding discs are equally painful.
  Oh, and i don't think that they make a plate joiner; I think they only do a domino joiner, which is even cooler.
  
  thicc biscuits.
  but yeah I use my router table for tenoning.
  
  My dream shop setup is Festool for corded and Hilti for cordless

314 comments