Technical I think this is a sad day

This past summer I visited a lake cottage that used to belong to my grandfather, and then an uncle, and now his step son. Admiring the collection of vintage hand tools was one of the trip highlights.
Among them were several unusual Craftsman hand tools. There was an Aluminum folding engineers ruler (light, but probably reads a little long in August), stylish open and closed end wrenches, and more.

I just got an e-mail as a member of the "Craftsman club."

I understand Sears likely needs a bunch of cash these days, but I'm not expecting the "spin" to be any where near correct.

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Dear Dan,

I'm writing to let you know some exciting news about Craftsman that will enable us to put even more hardworking tools in the hands of makers everywhere. On January 5, Sears Holdings announced that it will sell the Craftsman brand to Stanley Black & Decker.

Craftsman is and has been an important part of the Sears family for ninety years. And that’s not going to change. The research and development team at Sears and Craftsman will continue to develop new innovations that will be available exclusively at Sears and Kmart stores and online. However, as part of this transaction, Stanley Black & Decker will gain the rights to develop, manufacture and sell Craftsman-branded products outside of Sears and Kmart, which will make Craftsman products more broadly available in the USA and internationally.

Craftsman remains committed to maintaining the very best aspects of the Craftsman brand. You'll still find the most high quality tools available at the best value, along with our exclusive lifetime warranty on Craftsman hand tools, which has been a hallmark of the brand for generations.

Sears will continue to have the most extensive range of Craftsman tools and lawn and garden products, along with the same trusted service you rely on. In addition to being sold primarily at Sears and Kmart, Craftsman will soon be available at other retailers nationwide.

 

Hello,

As long as hot rods and custom cars have been around for us and others, starting back in the late 50’s through the late 80’s, Craftsman tools have been a staple in the tool boxes across the USA. It is sad to see Sears going down the tubes, but it is the sign of the times. With the big box home stores selling tools and becoming more prevalent all across the USA, it was bound to happen. But, back in those early days, Craftsman was the best. We still have our original tools, screwdrivers, box wrenches, crescent wrenches, power handles for sockets, the socket sets, and even a hole punch that has lasted decades.

Back when times were tough (80’s-90’s) and buying anything new, let alone tools was out of the question, sears came through. when a screwdriver broke or a box wrench chipped, they were replaced without any questions by the sears personnel. I never had a socket break, but they replaced a stripped out one (from over use…spark plug socket) the last thing I thought that would never be replaced was the torque wrench bar. It stopped clicking, so I took it back and pleaded with the salesman and got a new one on the spot. (my wife says my gorilla tactics broke the clicking sounds)

So, with the expansion of the Craftsman line and hopefully better quality tools, we will be back in business with free replacements like the old days. My current tool drawer is less full because I gave my son that set of original, Craftsman sockets and wrenches. His neighbors are impressed with those old Craftsman sets. Even though he is not into hot rods like we were back in the early days, he still uses those socket sets to repair stuff around the house. (Bikes, furniture, exercise equipment, ping pong table, etc.)

Jnaki

 

Sad to say but this is not a new phenomenon and what may have played a part in in the downfall of Sears was it's tool policy.
Back in the early 1900's the was a pocket knife company in Lakeville CT named Holley that made some really great knives. Their operation was huge and employed hundreds of people. One of their policies was that it would replace any Holley made knife that failed for any reason without question. Unfortunately their salesman took this to mean they would replace ANY knife that failed with a brand new Holley knife.You can see where this is going. The company was forced into bankruptcy in part due to that policy and the Depression starting in 1929.
Just my opinion folks;your mileage may vary.

 

Not sure if the sale of the Craftsman line is a sign of Sears over all or there tool replacement policy. What I do think is that anytime we are willing to buy Cheep crap like H F tools and just buy more when they fail the more costly and better line will soon loos enough market that they can't make it. When have you ever seen a Craftsman booth at a Swap Meet? Success or Failure is consumer driven. I got my first Craftsman tool kit for Christmas around 1955. I still have 95% of it. What's not there is only because I've lost them.
The Wizzard

 

I refuse to dance. All of my very good Made in USA wrenches cost a dollar or so at estate sales and are good enough to last until my children die. I got one made in 1914 (for a dollar!) that still appears to be new

 

I gave up on craftsman years ago unfortunately.
The quality really started to slide (offshore I suspect...) and on top of that, I got tired of driving to the Sears store and being told they were out of what I was looking for. I use tools for work so having stuff break on a regular basis might be irritatingly normal, but being out of service for months isn't!
The old stuff I still have is excellent...as long as you don't need to replace the ratchet kit or something! Then you end up with the lower quality stuff in a nice old handle.
Certainly hope this sale revives the brand.
I'll check them out and give it a shot if it feels good in my hands again!

 

Mechanic at Shell station where I pumped gas while in college was upgrading to Snap-On and I bought all his Craftsman for $40.00- best money I ever spent and still use them today-

 

I went to breakfast with some friends yesterday and this topic came up. Craftsman had been a staple for many of us for many years. I still have a box full of them (and others too) Over the past few years Craftsman has lost credibility. The "lifetime warranty" was in question and any tool returned was met with an argument and eventually a Chinese replacement. (maybe) My point is, maybe, this forced many to look elsewhere and loss of market share. Too bad.

I don't know if this is a good move for Craftsman or not but I hope so. I also read the Stanley Black & Decker may not offer "lifetime" warranties but no official position is published yet.

In the mean time, I continue to use my "antique" Craftsman, Proto, MAC, Snap On, S K Wayne and others.

 

When craftsman went to China the wrenches became way bigger , my guess is an attempt to make the wrench stronger for inferior metalergy, if you put one of my Chinese wrenches against one of my dads from the 60s the differance is huge , I didn't notice till the box end woundnt get into spots I knew I got wrenches on before

I started to buy some kobalt from lowes still China .. But seems like decent quality , I just can't afford tool truck tools , I thought I would buy craftsman for the rest of my life , but I gave up when harbor freight started looking better quality :-(

 

Sad day yes...............
To this tale of woe, you can add the Vise-Grip story.
First patented in 1921 by William Peterson and made in small town DeWitt, Nebraska. They did well during the depression, through the war years and into the 1950's and beyond. Making several improvements over the years like the easy release lever. Family eventually sold the company to Irwin Tools who closed the DeWitt plant in 2008 and sent production to China. About 330 people in and around DeWitt were given the axe.

Most of the old Vise-Grips I have are stamped "Made in USA". The newer ones I've seen have no stamp. The Irwin corporate sluts must be ashamed of their oriental product....

 

Working mans tools at a working mans price,I have owned most of mine since I was 16 years old,they have served me well for over 50 years.warranty or not.

This is just another example in our lives that things change,nothing stays the same regardless of how we wish they would. HRP

 

Most tools these days are already made by Stanley including snap on. Might not make a difference but might improve the locations to get them replaced when they break!

Sent from my SM-G920V using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

Yep. Also, i wonder how many people in the day started their credit report with a small gray craftsman tool box and a set of tools from sears???

 

I went to work in the Sears San Diego store in 1959 and bought tools every week at a 10% discount. Still have them and the only issue has been 1/4" ratchet. When I bought a boat, bought tools at K-Mart so if I dropped one over board, no big loss. They were made in Japan and I still have them 45 years later! According to the WSJ, Stanley is expanding existing US plants and bringing some overseas manufacturing back to the US.

 

Like everybody else I have craftsman tools, many are as old as me, or I got when I was a teenager. I like craftsman, and I am a pro technician. Have you seen the price of any snap on tools lately? IMO, there prices are way out of line. I for one do not want to spend $40.00 on one socket, when I can get a set of craftsmans for that.

 

Most of my tools in the garage are Crafstman and I have inherited many Craftsman saws and drills that are over 50 years old and still work great,the only reason I have Snap on at work is they show up every week and I could make payments so my tool box at work is full of them and spent way too much money on them.

 

Let's hope it is a good thing. Craftsman tools have been a joke for a decade or so.

Stanley on the other hand is building things in North America. Stanley-vidmar makes laboratory grade tool boxes and inventory control dispensers up to the size of a several story building. I have been buying top grade Stanley stuff for a while and it has outlasted even some of my friends tool truck stuff.

 

Oh believe me brother - Snap-On tools were ALWAYS sky high.
We wrench types paid the price because of quality, service, financing, range of oddballs tools the guy could get.

Things like line wrenches - I thought those were all worthless - then I bought a couple of SnapOn combos - and man - I was a believer - they were so damned good!

The more exotic the work got - like working on radial aircraft engines - the more we guys needed SnapOn, Proto, Williams and a half dozen other names I have forgotten.
But yeah, my surrogate father was a commercial carpenter, and he kept a full carry box of all Craftsman hand tools - they never let him down.

 

Craftman tools for last 20-25 yrs "JUNK"
Just the other day I needed a short spark plug socket, I grabbed a spare out of one of my boxs , was ready to cut it up to shorten , I realized it was the old craftsman one, mid 60s ,
So I grabbed a new snap on, a-year-old , cut it up instead !
Hopefully in next 4yrs " Quality will return to USA!
"""Government """ Started with Nixon = $$ not back by Gold ,
Carter = ""metric ", and few other since then,
We are being constantly Told and Teaching ( In School /College/ News )
we can not do / Build anything in the ""USA" anymore !!!
Look Just at Cal. how many companies have Left !!! In last 20yrs ,

 

This thread will be locked or deleted shortly just like the other one.....

 

As a teenager in high school in the 60's I worked a Sear's,Roebuck & Co. in shipping and receiving and the store I worked at sold a lot of tool sets.

The hand tools that broke were covered by a life time warranty,I have seen a 1 1/4" deep well 6 point socket split right down the center.

If you ratchet quit working they would send it to us in S & R and we would have a replacement kit to repair and size ratchet.

I worked there for 3 years and replaced less than 10 kits total.

Sometime in the last few years my 3/8" ratchet bit the dust,so off to the DREADED MALL where the NEW IMPROVED Sears is located and I went in with my broken ratchet in hand.

After several minutes I found a small counter that said Craftsman tools,I haven't entered this small store in the past and it was a huge disappointment,gone are the huge displays,and only a smattering of tools.

I approach the counter and no one is around,I looked around and the place looked like a ghost town,finally a young girl(?) ask could she help?

I told her I needed a kit to fix my ratchet and naturally all she heard was a foreign language, she said,"HUH?"

I explained that there are kits to repair ratchets and she just picked up the ratchet and tossed it in a box behind the counter,she said."Go get a new one" and that's what I did and I grabbed a pair of snap ring pliers on the way back to the counter.

I started disassembling the new ratchet and she looked at me like I was crazy,I ask her to get my old wrench and as soon as it was in my hands I started taking it apart and remover the broken gears and put the new gears in my ratchet,I leaned over the counter and tossed it in the junk tool box.

The whole time the girl was standing there staring at what I was doing and as I had my back to her she finally said,"why do you want to fix that old greasy tool when you could have had a BRAND NEW TOOL?"

And that dammed old Curmudgeon that I normally do a good job of keeping in line said," Because my dad gave me this tool more than fifty years ago and the New Craftsman tools ain't worth a damn." HRP

 

One more observation,with Sears selling no longer selling the Craftsman brand I have no reason to do business with Sears,teenage girls selling tools and lawn mowers and men working in the lady's departments,lack of people working the floor,no wonder they are in trouble. HRP

 

That's a great story HRP. Did you buy the snap ring pliers or return them to the shelf?

 

First, there was a recent thread about the same subject and Ryan Almighty closed it because it wasn't "appropriate" for the H.A.M.B. I disagree but I'll say this while this thread is still open: Sears never made the "Craftsmans" tools (nor any other of their famous name brands) Stanley/Black&Decker is a good company that makes MAC tools and Proto, among others. They are going open a new plant in the U.S. of A to manufacture the Craftsman brand, so it will be around for a long time to come, even if Sears folds. No, you're wrong, it's not a sad day.

 

When I got out of the Army in 1974 my wife and I bought everything at Sears. Our first credit card from them helped us buy our first TV there - $429 for a 19" color TV. All my tools, tool boxes, air compressors, saws, Lincoln welder, appliances, tires, shocks came from Sears. Over the years I watched the corporate masters bleed the company and squeeze every dime out of it. They used to have good sales on tools and then the prices were raised so much the sale price wasn't that good a deal and it was always on the same few things. Then the quality slipped and production went off shore. Then they started to squeeze the long time employees out by cutting salary and commissions and replace them with no nothing part-timers. I have always made it a point to talk to the employees and get to know them to see what was happening to them. Recently I had done some business with the automotive center and was told corporate had required them to stay open until 9:00 PM on a Sunday night where there was absolutely no business (this town folds up at night-nobody is out) and then gave the employees hell for not making it a success. The top echelons of management lost touch with its customers and employees a long time ago and its time to put it out of its misery. This is the same corporate managed disaster that destroyed Kmart. Great plan, they are sending their customers elsewhere so they have no reason to come to Sears. Now its a hedge fund that is loaning them money so they can sell off the pieces to keep it afloat and get the last meat off the bones before it goes under. I'm sure any long time employees that had a pension will be stiffed when it goes into bankruptcy. It makes me sick to watch it happen.

 

Craftsman, to me, was/is a quality tool. part from past history, and still currently using. I am a low buck guy that has a few off brand tools too. yes, it is, and never has been, a true competitor to Snap On and other high end tools used in professional shops. . I do not own Snap On, etc. yes, there have been major changes in Federal/State regulations. yes, companies that build their products in USA have had to deal with major budget changes. yes, the world is going to change on a daily basis. you can sit and bitch, reminisce, etc. or, you can go forward. doing that does not mean that you forsake the old - far from the reason/purpose of this site and our own personal worlds. as with most things, do what is best for you and your budget.

 

I went to work in the Sears San Diego store in 1959 and bought tools every week at a 10% discount. Still have them and the only issue has been 1/4" ratchet. When I bought a boat, bought tools at K-Mart so if I dropped one over board, no big loss. They were made in Japan and I still have them 45 years later! According to the WSJ, Stanley is expanding existing US plants and bringing some overseas manufacturing back to the US.[/QUOTE]



It was a BIG DEAL for our family to drive from Chula Vista to the Sears on Normal St. in S.D. - us kids had NEVER seen a store so big! Biggest thing I ever witnessed in Chula Vista was when Sears opened in 1966!

Look at a Chraftsman chest or rollaway today - not a dime's difference compared to Harbor Fright, but the price!!! WHY pay more??? My Craftsman 1/2D torque wrench is nearly 40 years old, has a bad spot in the ratchet that makes it a nucklebuster on lug nuts. I've herd the replacement guts are nothing close to the same in quality, so bought a HF wrench for about the same cost!

I WILL say that Sears has a pretty good selection of KD Tools for special jobs. Otherwise, it's getting hardar and harder to find a reason to walk into Sears for anything these days. Maybe it's the Sears pricing attached to K-Mart quality...

 

6 banger mentioned the HF box is being just as good as the Craftsman box, I beg to differ. A friend of mine and I went into HF the other day. We walked by the display tool boxes. Now, I never have even paid attention to them. Walk in, get my rubber gloves and walk out. He said "try the drawers". Laughingly I did. The drawers worked smoother and easier than my Craftsman. What the heck????

 

Sears is no different then any other place that sells tools. They all carry made in China junk. We had an old Craftsman USA manufactured hand hedge clipper that finally wore out. I took it back to Sears to get a replacement. The problem was the only clippers they now carry are made in China so I had no choice but to take one. It lasted about 2 weeks. Took it back to Sears and exchanged it for a bag of lawn fertilizer which was about the only thing they had that was made in the USA. Then went to Lowes and Home Depot both of who don't sell a made in USA hand clipper. The best places now for made in USA tools at a reasonable price is eBay or an estate or yard sale.

 

Sears on Normal street. Boy does that bring back memories. It was a huge store and had everything anybody could want. The tool section was awe inspiring. By the way that is where my brother worked and bought tools every week.