marlinspike

Heavy is cheap, that's why. One of the nice thing about the euro stuff is that they all meet DIN specs. DIN specs are always tougher than ASME/ANSI.

I like how those Craftsman ratchets are smooth and polished. How in the world are you supposed to grip them with oil on your hands?

BTW, you might want to check out garagejournal.com.

Gen_Crunchytoes

I have a mixture of bluepoint, snap on, and gearwrench. In terms of overall performance i would rate snap on first obviously, gearwrench second and bluepoint third. My gearwrench stuff is on par with bluepoint but its cheaper so it gets my second place vote

Fabrik8

That was my front runner when I made the thread. I'm still trying to find what type of finish their black oxide actually is, because it looks pretty badass. It's not going to be as corrosion resistant as chrome if it's just standard black oxide though most likely.

The Nepros stuff looks pretty nice, and is about the same price as the Proto line.

Reloaded

I'm not sure if it's still true but 5+ years ago there were only 3 major tool manufactures in the US. Stanley, Danaher, and Snap-On.

Snap-On produces its own line of Snap-On as well as the Kobalt line sold through Lowes.

Up until 1994 Stanley Works produced the Craftsman line of hand tools. In 1995 Danaher out bid Stanley for the job of building Craftsman. Danaher is also the same company that makes MatCo tools.

Stanley owns Mac Tools and produces them in the same factories where they had previously been building Craftsman. Proto Tools (a very expensive line used by the military and aerospace industry) is also made at the same factory from the same forgings.

cardana24

As other people have mentioned I like my Gearwrench stuff much better than craftsman and kobalt. I am just a shade tree, I have never purchased any of the higher end stuff.

Reloaded

I have Craftsman stuff from 10 years ago when it was still made in the US and some misc Kobalt pieces.

Fabrik8

I don't think Snap-on makes Kobalt anymore, they're made in Taiwan now I think. I don't think Craftsman is made by Danaher anymore either. Could be wrong though.

It makes sense about Stanley and Mac; the traditional knurled-handle Stanley Proto and Mac look pretty much the same.

Fabrik8

Good thread so far, I need to make more of these with random topics.

R. Danneskjöld

Been using mostly a mixture of Snap-On, and Stanley tools to work on Phrogs for about ten years, and I have no complaints. Those tools are abused and used hard 10-20 hours almost every day, they rarely break and seem to be pretty good at keeping corrosion at bay. Now that I have made the transition to V-22's we have a bunch of the higher end Snap-On stuff and it is fantastic. As a side-note, my favorite tool of all time is my trusty big assed Stanley 1 inch wrench. His name is Billy Burns and he is good for anything from prying hyd lines, to hammering, to beating duechebags, oh and the occasional 1 inch fitting lol.

I will say that I hate ratchets or any tool with a smooth finished handle when Im covered in hyd fluid, unless it has some shape to it to keep it from falling out of grasp. Its a royal pain in the ass when you keep dropping tools and have to get down off the plane to go get them, or even worse go hunting through the plane to find them.

Hooch

Not being a pro mechanic i`ve always bought craftsman simply because it`s cheap compared to snap on and they will always replace any tool you break. Pretty much the selling point for me.....On that note i have a 5 gallon bucket of stripped ratchets, cracked sockets and bent wrenches that i need to exchange.

Ok maybe craftsman isn`t the way to go lol.