On Mon, 11 Nov 2013 00:23:21 -0800, mike wrote:

On 11/10/2013 9:48 PM, John B. wrote:
On Sun, 10 Nov 2013 12:25:05 -0800, 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?


As a general statement, steel tools are plated or otherwise coated to
prevent rust so a shiny finish is meaningless. another give away is
that "Cobalt" is spelled with a "C" and not a "K".

Kobalt is a brand name and has nothing to do with the metal Cobalt.

It is, by the way, "A hard, brittle metallic element, found
associated with nickel, silver, lead, copper, and iron ores and
resembling nickel and iron in appearance. It is used chiefly for
magnetic alloys, high-temperature alloys..." and "hard, brittle"
hardly seem appropriate qualities for a tool (except maybe a glass
cutter :-).

well, in the case of a #4 Torx, I'd much rather have a tool shatter
than round off the tiny corners and take the head of the screw with it.
The tool, I can replace. The mangled screw stuck in a $300 gizmo, not
so much.

In summary, nobody has a shred of useful advice.
Thanks..I tried...

and so did we... You're welcome :-)
--
Cheers,

John B.