I found this box of wrenches in the yard the other day & noticed that 2 of the Craftsman 7/16" said Molybdenum & Japan on them? From looking at the other tools & junk in the back of the '69 Delta that these are older versions of these tools. I always thought Craftsman tools, or at least wrenches, were made in the USA?
IMG_20151129_202002758_zpskds8a4ix.jpg
IMG_20151129_202049654_zpsd448kj5b.jpg

 

They have been made in Japan for a while now. Now you can find Craftsman stuff at other places besides Sears also.

 

It is probably better than China.

 

The Japan-sourced Craftsman wrenches are from the 1970s-80s. They are the same quality as the US-sourced wrenches. Do NOT confuse these with the Chinesium tools that are being sold today under the Craftsman brand. The new tools are very different from traditional Craftsman tools. One big topic of discussion on web forums is the "crab claw" open end wrenches from China vs. the smaller head open end wrenches from the US.

 

X2 what Joe said. You have to be pretty old to remember, but some Craftsman tools were made in Japan years ago. Japan is not China, they were not made of Chinesium, and were actually good quality tools.

 

Japanese precision is awesome, and is up there with ours, and beaten only by early 1900s German stuff. Japanese steel, when made to their specs, sucks compared to ours. Any craftsman wrench made over there was made to US specs and is fine, but some of the machines made by Japanese vendors to their steel specs has weak steel, and it has a hard time passing our PE certs.

 

Interesting information, thanks guys. I suspected they were older and good to know they were made in Japan & not China.

 

Sez the guy who works for Toyota...

(Sorry, that was too easy to resist )

 

Back in the mid 70's I bought a cheap set of wrenches 5/16-11/16 made in India. They were not pretty, not shiney, kind of a rough texture, but were some of the best I ever owned. The rough texture was nice as they did not slip in the hand even if working with greasy hands. Good fit and still in use. Ya never know.

 

is it true that Craftsmen and Home Depot's hand tools are made by the same company?

 

Nah, that's ok. I don't know what GMs specs are, but I've been impressed by the sometimes outright weird tolerances the Japanese designs have. Something like 5.05 +0 -0.07.

That's like it needs to be 5.05 ideally, can never be bigger, but can be 0.07 smaller. I've never understood lopsided tolerances.

 

Depends on when. Sears never manufactured anything. Craftsman hand tools were always made by some other company. That source changed over the years. During the 2000s, Craftsman hand tools were made by Danaher, who also acquired Easco, Allen, and KD brands. Allen was sold at Lowes, for example.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Craftsman_%28tools%29

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/s...ad.php?t=84807

 

Forget about Craftsman and Home Depot for a minute. In general, "made by the same company" does not mean they are the same. Even if the product is made from the same design and on the same assembly line, quality standards can vary from customer to customer.

I used to work for an automotive parts manufacturer. Identical parts were shipped to two different customers -- but only after having passed different Quality Control tests. Ford and GM got the good parts, while we shipped the sloppier parts to a company who would sell them under a generic name.

 

Japan good China bad lol. I like Mac tools because their air tools are all made in japan. Snap on is made in Taiwan besides their hand tools same goes for matco.

 

IMO: Those are way cool. I collect old tools and I think you've found something there. They may not be worth much but they are definitely worth hanging on to.

I restored an old NAPA tool box just for storing my old tool finds in.

 

Original snap on made in the USA top shelf tool
MAC original another top shelf tool.
Craftsman original tools were always okay but never at the level of a snap on or Mac.
Snap on sockets were made from billet stock and would not deflect like a craftsman socket.
Snap on sockets were very precise fitting and would cause little to no damage to the bolt or nut. Damage as in mark up the bolt or nut.

 

You bring up excellent points. I'll add another recent experience with automotive parts (yeah, we're getting off topic, but I think we answered the original question...).

NAPA sells at least two levels of part "quality", with correspondingly different prices. I use the word quality in quotes because after paying a significant premium for the supposed higher quality brake drums for my truck, they were still crappy Chinesium drums that were out of round right out of the box. The extra money you pay doesn't go towards higher quality, it only goes towards the "insurance policy" that translates into the longer warranty for these parts. Unfortunately, NAPA doesn't routinely list COO on their parts.

 

Those are the same as my entire set of Craftsman tools that I bought back in the early '80s and am still using today. They have been very good tools and have held up well for 30 some years now.

 

I use a craftsman 1/2 in. Wrench for work . I grind it down so I can fit it inside a 1 in. Hole to tighten rail fittings together. A few years ago I wore 1 out and had to get a new one that's when I noticed the new ones are symmetrical. Where my old one wasn't. So if you're in a tight place and you can't get the wrench on when you flip it over you still can't get it on. The old one I had was not symmetrical. So if you couldn't get it on you just flipped it over and it would go on. This was a few years ago so I don't know if they're still like that.did any body else notice that.
Also remember when they sold a "sears" brand which I guess was a cheaper tool.
Railguy

 

I remember the Sears brand. I had not thought of those in a long time.

 

IIrc, the Sears brand tools did not have the life time warranty either.

 

They were like the Bluepoint brand for snap on.

 

I was working in a house in DC a few weeks ago, remodel job. The contractor said it was a kit from sears.put it together yourself. Sears sold a car that way to I've heard.
JC Penny sold wrenches too.
Railguy

 

There are some of those homes in San Francisco that are very popular and expensive. The only car I am aware of that Sears sold was a model of the Henry J called an Allstate. It looked identical to the Henry J. I wonder how many of those are still around. Talk about and orphan.

 

One of those allstates came through my dads shop it was an older restoration being media blasted in preperation to be turned into a gasser. There are also many many sears houses in my area here in elgin il. Pretty crazy how sears sold just about anything and still kind of does offering dental , vision and even work as a ticket broker.

 

A lot of Henry J's were turned into gassers which was about all they were good for. When I was young (a long time ago) and we had horses, my brother and I got new saddles that came from sears. Times have changed.

 

The unique thing is the all states had a few diffrences like working trunks. Not to get off subject but the henry J does make a bad@$$ gasser i just found it odd they where tearing into such an odd ball car but i guess it just adds to the cool factor. Considering how sears pumped stuff out for the common folk i doubt it will be worth much in stock form.

 

I have still have a full set of them that I got in the 80's plus one of their top boxes. Their stuff was as good as Craftsman.

 

It is too bad they did that to an Allstate. I doubt it would be worth much but that was a very rare piece of Americana that is gone. I wonder how many Allstates were made. I think some of the later Henry J's had working trunks also.

 

Well, I saw one of them at a cruise night in Hagerstown, MD last August.

 

I use craftsman wrenches for years. I also have Proto wrenches and have had them even longer. I have a 9/16 Taiwan box end wrench the got bent badlywhen a pipe was added as a cheater bar i was 17 maybe 18 at the time. I never threw it away i found out a couple years later that it is the perfect distributor wrench. By being bent it is shorter and easy to turn the bolt because it does not hit firewall like the others do. Back to the craftsman thread.

 

No, this is not true. A LOT of the old Bluepoint stuff was excellent, and WAS Snap-on. There weren't 2 qualities, it was like some ignition tools were Bluepoint, and that was that. NOW most Bluepoint items (like socket sets) are crap stuff and they are trying to sell it on the Snap-on name.

 

I found a set of
"Mr. Goodwrench" combination wrenches at the buy-n-sell store one day.

Have not seen them ever elsewhere. Stamped "Mr. Goodwrench".

Huh, today are several "Goodwrench" tools on feepay:

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_odkw...+tool&_sacat=0

It looks like the Allstate car was made back when there were 48 states... per the emblem.

 

Someone told me a long time ago and correct me if Im wrong that Waterloo is Craftsman like Blue Point is Snap On.

 

Through my relentless efforts to steer people out of harborjunk & Sears and to buy USA... I try to ferret out non chineasium junk whenever possible. Its not easy. This applies to everything I buy not just car parts n tools. I am in charge of tool purchase at work. I have found... at least at this present time... Proto, Armstrong and some Stanley is manufactured in USA! The first two I will compare to Snap On (of the past) as far as quality at 1/2 the price. I'm glad I purchased the majority of my tools long ago as they ALL say USA! Vice Grip is now junk. Made to USA specifications" says the packaging...nice try Erwin...JUNK! Shame on all of you Sears, Snap Off and all the other sellouts AND same goes for the bean counters and execs that drove us off this cliff/bridge! You simply can not purchase durable goods any longer, no matter how much you spend...sad.

 

As in pre-1958? Yes, that would be correct.

 

First time I ever saw an Allstate! Thanks for sharing!

 

As was a lot of the old Sears stuff. Just as with Bluepoint, none carried a lifetime warranty. I agree the quality of tools is not as good as years ago.

 

These were my dads (born 1921) main set of wrenches. Probably bought in the late 1940's or early 1950's. I was always amazed at their light weight and thinness. Lots of hard work done but they never bent or broke. Must have used good steel back then.

 

Flip one over and post a picture if you don't mind.