There was a New Britain brand of mechanic's hand tools sold for many years but I haven't seen the brand for years. If I remember correctly they were sold by NAPA stores. I have several wrenches and a small socket set made by New Britain that I have had for about 30 years. They are pretty good quality, not quite Snap-On but pretty close. The company was in New Britain, Conn. and may be one that was gobbled up by Stanley on their way to being a mega tool company. Anyway the brand is defunct as far as I can tell and there is no trace of the company found on searching the internet.

 

The salesman, that calls on our company, for Danher Tool Group, shows 3 "brands" of tools on his card. All of them are made by Danaher. They are Armstrong Bros. - Allen - Craftsman.
I do everything I can to talk people out of the Allen hand tool line. My own personal expeirences with them have been all bad. The Armstong tools are very good.

A word on warranties. In the past if you broke an Armstrong ratchet in any way, it was replaced free, no questions. Now, if you break any part of the mechanism in the head you are required to BUY a rebuild kit. I have also seen Armstrong sales reps. "inspect" a broken ratchet for signs that a cheater bar was used.

I have never had any argument on any S-K tools.

PS. K-D Tools are part of the "Allen Tool" line.

 

You got that right!
I can compare Craftsman of my fathers to mine, and mine are horrible.

In fact, I have a real bad rust problem with every craftsman socket I own...

 

rander, your post intrigued me. Since I don't remember any of Stanley's tools ever having "New Britain" stamped on them, I tried to think of some other company that could have manufactured the tools that you have. Then I remembered that there was a company, the "New Britain Machine Works" which was around for many years but went out of business in the late '70s, and I recall now that they did do a lot of metal casting and tool and die stuff. The company was booming during the Vietnam War so I know they did a lot of work for the US Govt. back then. Anyway, I am going to ask some of the oldtimers around here whether they also made and sold tools and tool sets. I might even learn something about my own town! If I get any info on that I will post it.

 

I remember "New Britain" brand tools years ago, but I don't remember what store they were sold in. It's possible Stanley took them over when they did Proto and Mac. Been using Craftsman stuff since the early sixties and when one of my ratchets gave up last month the boys and I went up to get a new parts kit. For the last twenty years these were on the socket rack with a $00.01 price tag and you could pick out the one you needed and off you'd go. No way. This time they tried to give me a ratchet from under the counter that wasn't a wobbly. Then the nice lady tried to tell me to leave the tool and they would rebuild it. "Only take a day or so", she said.

After bringing the store manager all the way to the third floor, someone looked in their SOP book and lo and behold, they COULD just hand out the parts. Evidently someone has sued Sears because they screwed up replacing a snap ring or whatever and hurt themselves, so the company spends eight hours training someone to rebuild tools.

Pinch a finger--------Sue a company.

As far as the quality goes, they did have items made in China ten years ago, but they recalled them all, at least pulled them from stock, and somehow they wound up at swap meets all over really, really cheap.

 

I have had real good "luck" with craftsman. My only big complaint about them is that when you break a ratchet they reach under the counter and hand you a rebuilt one. Major reason i use them is their unconditional warranty and the fact that i hate having to wait for the MatCo or Snap On truck to come around

 

When you go to sears to exchange a ratchet insist on a new one. They will usually give in.

 

I am happy with my made in the USA by there own company Snap-On tools. By the way Stanley now owns/makes MAC tools.

 

Heres the deal. I work at sears so i know how this is SUPPOSED to go. When ya take one in, if they have a rebuilt your supposed to get one...if they don't..then you get a new one. They rebuild them and if you ever asked for the written warranty, it does proviede for a rebuilt ratchet. And yes...sears does use a variaty of manufacturers. For example, the craftsman pro air gun, its the same as the snap on one, but about two hundred dollars cheaper. The ratchets sears have are three different grades. The really cheap ones, the standard ones and the proffesional ones. Even with the good pro line you'll still be spending less than a snap on one. And i've only ever broke one of my ratchets....but the two foot pipe on a 3/8 probably had something to do with it.

 

Ryan...Nice quote at the bottom of your reply.

 

Danaher makes Craftsman and Matco hand tools among many others. The quality varies with the line and of course the price. The Stanley Works makes MAC and Proto among others and once again the quality differs with the price and line. Snap On also produces Kobalt hand tools but they are by no means Snap ON quality. I "think" Cornwell makes all their handtools. As far as quality I think it is safe to say you get what you pay for. This being said I use many brands of hand tools and I have been pleased with all of my USA made tools. Some are better than others but if I don't abuse my tools (i.e. use the right tool for the job) they outlast me.

 

OK, had a nice long chat yesterday with an oldtimer who has lived here in New Britian, CT, his entire life. I went to him because I knew he had worked for Stanley Works at one time (started an apprenticeship with them in the late '40s) and then later had become a fleet maintenance guy (regional head) for Southern New England Telephone. I figured he oughta know about tools and tool companies around this area, and I was right.

He said that "The New Britain Machine" was a metal works congolmorate that made and refined large machine parts for business and industry. I guess they were into other heavy duty stuff, as well. Well, what happened was, they started manufacturing their own hand tools, first on an "in-house, as needed" basis and then later for local distribution and sale. Well, the tools quickly became popular not only locally but regionally as well. And evidently some sets made their way into the national markets. He recalls that this started around the late 1950's and during the '60s and early '70s is when you could find New Britain tools and tool sets on the shelves at some auto parts places. He still has a few wrenches himself. I asked him his opinion on quality and he said they would compete with MAC tools today in that regard.

As for Stanley, he said Stanley stopped manufacturing their own hand tools (non-power) a LONG time ago and that for decades they have been purchasing their tools from another vendor, stamping the Stanley name on them, putting together neat little kits and sets, and then re-selling them as Stanley originals. There are a few exceptions to that, he said, such the tape measures and rulers, which are the real deal Stanley-wise.

If I get any more info from other sources I'll follow up.

 

when i worked at sears(1995) concord ca,all craftsman tools were made by western forge in co.as far as i know it was the only product that was u.s. made that they sold.junk=profit.just about everything that came off the truck(receiving)came from asia-mostly china.

 

I think craftsman has gone down hill because of the Kmart Joining,( and sear went Bankrupt in the 1990's)

 

kmart went chapter 11.sears bought them out and 4med 1 corporation.