How common are PROAMERICA wrenches ?

[hickory n Steel]

Never seen, nor heard of this brand myself.

Never ? They're By Kal tools and are I'm told mostly made for contracts GOVT or otherwise.

KAL was a bigger brand in the 60s and 70s -- besides a full line of hand tools they also offered budget automotive test equipment and IIRC some basic homeowner grade body repair tools and kits.

That said, I don't think KAL ever produced anything in any of their factories, because they had none. All they were was a brand that contracted with US, Korean, Japanese (and I also think Taiwanese) manufcaturers to make the stuff. I have KAL wrenches from the US, Japan, and Korea -- damn good stuff, but very basic fit/finish.  I used to buy them on ebay for very little money and outfit all my family fleet toolkits with them.

One think I will add -- the Korean wrenches are awesome. Like many of you guys if I have to do some questionable torquing with a pipe or hammer on a wrench i tend to grab the cheap stuff. Well, I once used a 1" KAL combo and put a five foot cheater over it to loosen a control arm bushing on a truck -- the damn thing took it and asked for more. Needless to say I was pretty impressed with KAL's Korean tool line -- whoever the manufacturer was; they produced a great product.

Good to know
I've got a 6" pair of KAL Japan linesman style pliers ( utility pliers I guess ) and they're a damn good tool.
The fit and finish on them is actually excellent.
I wonder what the deal is with PROAMERICA then, I'm assuming they have a factory otherwise there's be no need for their name to be on tools suplkied to the GOVT.

[goodfellow]

I doubt there were/are any Pro-America tool factories. They probably contracted to existing manufacturers to produce a product to a specific spec and design. 

[hickory n Steel]

I doubt there were/are any Pro-America tool factories. They probably contracted to existing manufacturers to produce a product to a specific spec and design.

Seems weird that the government would contract to someone who doesn't actually make the stuff, but I'm sure it's not impossible.

Btw I noticed that the Thorsen 15/16 which came in my set follows the exact same model numbers, ie it has the exact same model number that the PROAMERICA 15/16 does.

I wonder if Thorsen could be a potential manufacturer ?

[goodfellow]

If the government buys large quantities in bulk, I doubt many manufacturers would be capable of meeting the demand, and still supply their commercial and retail customers. KAL/Pro-America management was probably well plugged into the government contracting and procurement system and managed to take the time and effort to craft a blanket procurement for their own designs by subcontracting those designs to manufacturers across the country, and in many cases across the globe.

[eborcim]

Sears sold them for a while.  They are Craftsman quality before the tailspin era.  I have a metric set from 1991.  I bought them for the name but they did turn out to be a good solid set.

[hickory n Steel]

If the government buys large quantities in bulk, I doubt many manufacturers would be capable of meeting the demand, and still supply their commercial and retail customers. KAL/Pro-America management was probably well plugged into the government contracting and procurement system and managed to take the time and effort to craft a blanket procurement for their own designs by subcontracting those designs to manufacturers across the country, and in many cases across the globe.

Makes sense.

[Uncle Buck]

Never seen, nor heard of this brand myself.

Never ? They're By Kal tools and are I'm told mostly made for contracts GOVT or otherwise.

Nope never. Does not mean they are not fine tools, just a brand I have never seen, nor heard of.

[hickory n Steel]

Never seen, nor heard of this brand myself.

Never ? They're By Kal tools and are I'm told mostly made for contracts GOVT or otherwise.

Nope never. Does not mean they are not fine tools, just a brand I have never seen, nor heard of.

I know you weren't putting them down or anything.

I'm not surprised at all that you haven't heard of them before, it seems they're just generally not a well known brand which is how I got them as cheap as I did.
I was only vaguely aware of the brand myself.
I think I had a PROAMERICA extension laying around somewhere but that's it.

[four.cycle]

No, they were not made by Thorsen. Thorsen's been out of business almost 30 years now.
Proamerica is made by Proamerica.
KAL is made by KAL.
Forging facility is in Pennsylvania somewhere.

The reason the part numbers are the same is because a LOT of tool manufacturers use the same formula for assigning part number to sockets and wrenches: the last two digits of the part number are the size in 32nds (on SAE tools.) (i.e., 1008 wrench = 1/4")

[hickory n Steel]

No, they were not made by Thorsen. Thorsen's been out of business almost 30 years now.
Proamerica is made by Proamerica.
KAL is made by KAL.
Forging facility is in Pennsylvania somewhere.

The reason the part numbers are the same is because a LOT of tool manufacturers use the same formula for assigning part number to sockets and wrenches: the last two digits of the part number are the size in 32nds (on SAE tools.) (i.e., 1008 wrench = 1/4")

Thanks for the info.