On Tuesday, August 15, 2017 at 12:00:49 PM UTC-5, Scott Lurndal wrote:

Ah, I see that there is a Skil Tools (which makes the homeowner crap)
and SkilSaw (which makes the good stuff).

Skil is owned by a Chinese company after being sold by Bosch that apparently bought them to get rights to the worm drive saw.

Its confusing. When I started in the trades a few decades ago, even though we didn't use Skil branded tools (except the worm drive)all wood cutting circular saws were called "Skilsaws". Nothing has changed. We don't say get a drill and a "Makita" and head to the job.

Skilsaw© was the first, powerful, practical and reliable wood cutting circular saw. It was a patented, heavily protected piece of machinery (much like the old Fein oscillators or the Festool Domino) that had the worm drive market to itself. The Skil line of saws, drills, routers, was developed for the lighter use group and in the 60s they made some pretty good tools.

Skil makes the Skilsaw©, and now (rumor has it) that since Skil was recently sold to a Chinese company, they are redirecting their efforts to make a "professional quality" set of tools. Not sure what that means anymore, but I guess they are getting out of the crap tool business.

Robert