On Aug 4, 6:44 am, Too_Many_Tools wrote:
Considering the ever increasing of recalls of dangerous imports, will
there be a future recall [of defective imported tools etc.]

The simple answer is: no. Those factories in China aren't branding
their goods, they're manufacturing in ship-container loads for US
distributors who apply a brand name. So, a 'manufacturer's recall'
would involve an act of generosity from a cutrate anonymous
manufacturer in China, and back-shipment of containerloads
of bad products from US to the orient. Not gonna happen; all the
actors in this scenario have a business plan without any such
line-items.

Dumping by a US distributor onto a third nation is more likely.
Certain,
in my humble opinion.

Outsourcing is a disturbing situation, because it breaks the consumer-
maker information channel. Antique furniture, even the crudest
green-wood stickbuilt items, is of high utility because the maker
probably
both used his own product and spoke with his customers. Years of
artisan
chairmaking resulted in sizes, designs, and even styles that have
become
classic. Most (non-artisan) massproduced chairs lack the
features that make those old designs lovable. No one with an 'office
chair' from Costco craves another like it when the first one breaks.

Tools are the same; it's hard to tell when you're buying whether
the product is what you really want, so I'm guilty of subsidizing the
worst products, more often than I like. A good example is the
Petersen Vise-Grip pliers; the styles, alloys, forgings, and
tolerances in
the original make it a fine tool. A similar-looking knockoff can have
loose joints, nonparallel pivots, misshaped jaws, too-soft teeth, or
weak alloys and poor heat treatment. It could be a good tool, or
a bad one, and there's no way for me to know until I've already
bought. Then I'm a dissatisfied customer for that bad tool, and
the Chinese manufactory hears nothing whatever about the situation.
How could they? Is [Wal-Mart/Sears] hearing my concerns, and passing
them on? Or bidding-out to a better subcontractor? Or are they
more likely to add racing stripes to the new model?

Fooled by the racing stripes, I then buy and try the new model, too.