On Wed, 15 Sep 2004 18:41:04 +0200, Tom Ivar Helbekkmo
calmly ranted:

Larry Jaques writes:

In the early 80's, nearly every tool I bought from
Crapsman was faulty and I ended up at the Searz tool counter
DAILY, with bandaged hands, with one broken tool or another.

Slow learner, are you? ;-)

I guess so. Actually, most of those trips back were to
replace the same tools over and over: ratchets in all drive
sizes, ratchet repair kits (once they got the gist of it),
6 and 12pt sockets in all drives, a few combo wrenches.


Do you get the Japanese brand "Kamasa" in the US? Over here, it's
about the best buy one can get for home use: Kamasa tools are very
good, and inexpensive. (Not cheap; there are no good cheap tools.)

No, never heard of it. I have some very old eastern Indian wrenches
which had held up better than the Crapsmans.


Of course, there are times when "very good" isn't enough. I once bent

That's where my Snap-On purchases happened. I'm too much of a
tightwad otherwise.


a Kamasa socket wrench shaft (and bled some in the process) trying to
loosen a recalcitrant nut in a difficult place. Got so angry, I
walked straight to the nearest real tool merchant, slammed the damn
thing down on the counter, and said "I want something that doesn't do
that". He sold me a German (West German, back then) shaft made by
Stahlwille, and explained that if I ever (no time limit) managed to
damage it, I could take it to any Stahlwille retailer, anywhere, with
no receipt, and I'd get it replaced, absolutely no questions asked.

Yeah, well, that's what SEARZ said, too. Fat luck that brought me.
A warranty is good only as long as it isn't needed. I think I'd
be willing to trust the German toolmaker more. Sad, isn't it?


I still have it, of course. Good as new, 20 years later. :-)

As tools _should_ be.

--
Lord, Thou hast made this world below the shadow of a dream,
An', taught by time, I tak' it so - exceptin' always Steam.
from "McAndrews Hymn" by Rudyard Kipling
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