On Sunday, November 10, 2013 12:25:05 PM UTC-8, mike wrote:
Lowes has a sale on Kobalt tools.

For $6 you can get a screwdriver kit that

has torx bits down to size 4. And they're smaller shank,

so the bit holder has smaller diameter and will fit down

the deep hole in the plastic of some devices to access the

screw head.

No brainer...except.

Are they any good.

The bits are shiny silver. My experience has been that the

shiny silver bits are much softer than the dull black ones.



They're guaranteed for life, but that's no help if you've

just stripped the head of that #4 Torx screw holding together

the $300 gizmo you're trying to repair.



So, is there any correlation between shiny silver surface and

softness for screwdriver bits? In the store, how do you tell

what's tough and what's not?

Stop buying names. A name means nothing these days when it comes to tools with very few exceptions. What use to be a high quality name is now no guarantee of quality. One exception I can think of off the top of my head is Festool.

http://www.festoolusa.com/

You have to test it to know. That's the only way you will ever know in today's marketplace.