On 12 Nov 2013 06:12:42 GMT, "DoN. Nichols"
wrote:

On 2013-11-12, mike wrote:
On 11/11/2013 4:28 PM, Gunner Asch wrote:

So the early ones were made by a good company...now they are made in
Taiwan and China.

[ ... ]

Since you're the fount of all knowledge...
Riddle me this...
Is there any reason that Taiwan and China can't make quality stuff?
They get painted with the broad crap brush.
I understand that we get crap because we're only willing to pay for crap.
BUT,
is there any fundamental technical reason that people in one particular
country
can't/won't/don't make any quality stuff? Ever?

Well ... I remember when tools from Japan were cheap -- drill
bits made of "butter steel", and so on. At the time, they were making
excellent cameras (and cheap ones). I figured that they made good
tools, but nobody was importing those, because the cost would be similar
to tools made in the USA at the same period.


And while you were being sold the "butter steel" drills I was buying
wood working tools that had blades made like the swords - a slice of
almost tool grade steel sandwiched between two slices of mild steel
and forge welded into one piece. You could sharpen the plane blades
until you could literally shave with them and they held an edge better
then anything I've seen since. Not cheap but not breathtakingly
expensive either.

See, the Japs and likely the Chinese think that y'all want cheap tools
so that is what they make for you, and you buy them. The growth of
Harbor Freight has been phenomenal - they are now a billion dollar
business. Selling cheap stuff.





[ ... ]

Wiha....good tools.
Yeah, but unrelated to the question about Kobalt.

Strongly related to the *implied* question of "What do I get if
I want *good* tools -- in particular good small size torx screwdrivers
or wrenches?" (Which perhaps should have been made explicit.) I keep a
number of Wiha small screwdrivers in my belt pouch, including Torx,
straight and Phillips blades. And larger ones at my electronics
workbench.

Enjoy,
DoN.
--
Cheers,

John B.