Corner of My Mind wrote:

The question is how does a newbie spot a quality tool if he doesn't know
what to look for?**Is*there*a*brand*that*is*known*to*only*produ ct
quality tools?**Just*look*for*the*most*expensive*of*that*t ool*available?

You've just sparked another holy war :-).

For most woodworking tools, stay away from Sears. Even further away from
Harbor Freight. For hand tools Lie-Neilson and Veritas are hard to beat, but
Sorby has some decent chisels. For power tools, Powermatic, General, and
Festool are hard to beat, But Porter-Cable, Jet, Bosch, and DeWalt aren't far
behind. On the low end, Rikon does pretty well, at least we haven't had many
complaints, and Ridgid has some nice stuff as well. Triton makes a good
router and Incra has some nifty measuring tools.

Note that these are my opinions and I'm sure I've left out some toolmakers
with good products. Probably some that we carry :-).

--
It's turtles, all the way down