Garage Gazette
TOOLS AND THE SHOP => GENERAL TOOL AND MACHINE DISCUSSION => Topic started by: goodfellow on May 12, 2022, 01:02:11 PM
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What a shock to find that even though Stanley B&D bought the Craftsman brand a few years ago, Sears doesn't sell any classic raised panel wrenches on their website. They only list the fully polished chrome sets. They do have a listing and stock number for raised panel wrenches, but they are actually sold by a company other than Sears (and at highly inflated prices I might add).
Lowes seems to be the place to get the best deal on classic raised panel Craftsman wrenches. Sadly though, all the current raised panel Craftsman Stanley B&D wrenches are made in China.
End of the ride for the folks like me who for decades valued the Craftsman USA made stuff.
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China? I think iindia is more accurate.
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Production went to China in 2012.
Lowes is the new official home of the Craftsman brand, but Ace hardware sells it to.
You can find the raised panels there but they're gonna be made in China unless you're in a small rural town or something that still has some NOS domestic stuff left.
The modern style S-B&,D wrenches with those diagonal hash marks are Taiwanese I believe.
I'd have more faith in them and feel better about the purchase than I would the Chinese examples but not by much.
If you're gonna order them, you might as well get the good ones secondhand off ebay.
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Production went to China in 2012.
Lowes is the new official home of the Craftsman brand, but Ace hardware sells it to.
You can find the raised panels there but they're gonna be made in China unless you're in a small rural town or something that still has some NOS domestic stuff left.
The modern style S-B&,D wrenches with those diagonal hash marks are Taiwanese I believe.
I'd have more faith in them and feel better about the purchase than I would the Chinese examples but not by much.
If you're gonna order them, you might as well get the good ones secondhand off ebay.
I was looking for a present for my BIL. He already has a nice collection of C-Man raised panel SAE sizes, but it's a mix of import and US made Craftsman raised panel wrenches. I thought Sears would at least have some stock of common metric sizes, but it seems that I'll have to go to Lowes to get the best deal.
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Napa is also carrying craftsman now as well
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Napa is also carrying craftsman now as well
Sent from my Pixel 6 using Tapatalk
Thanks Tim. I'll check it out, NAPA is right down the road from me. That also leads me to wonder how the Craftsman line is positioned within NAPA's tool offerings given that they have their Carlyle line as the premium choice. I assume that Craftsman represents their consumer "Value" line market tool segment?
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Napa is also carrying craftsman now as well
Sent from my Pixel 6 using Tapatalk
Thanks Tim. I'll check it out, NAPA is right down the road from me. That also leads me to wonder how the Craftsman line is positioned within NAPA's tool offerings given that they have their Carlyle line as the premium choice. I assume that Craftsman represents their consumer "Value" line market tool segment?
Not sure what the idea is. Probably like you say to be marketed more as a diy or value brand.
Sent from my Pixel 6 using Tapatalk
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Elroy holds a degree of sadness for the younger guy who's starting out to build his tool collection.
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Why is Sears even still trying to exist?
On thing I have noticed over the last few years is the pawn shop supply of good USA made tools seems to be drying up as well.
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Elroy holds a degree of sadness for the younger guy who's starting out to build his tool collection.
Yep, I definitely got shafted.
Crescent adjustable wrenches were no longer being made here, crafted was dead and the old stock was drying up, no more master mechanic, Husky, or Kobalt, Camillus cutlery and Schrade cutlery were already shut down, as well as imperial, Colonial, and Western.
I got started into tool buying about a decade ago and a lot of my options for affordable American made tools were gone.
That's the biggest reason why American made goods are so important to me, because I missed out on the era when it was the imported goods that were harder to find.