Craftsman hand tools is part of Danaher Corp (they bought Eaasco several years ago.) Danaher also owns Armstrong hand tools, Allen hand tools, KD hand tools, Holochome fasteners and most recently purchased Fluke Instruments. (And yes, they also own Armstrong flooring). I don't want to post something that is against the rules, I don't think this is. Up until last year, Sears had another division for hand tools, Craftsman Industrial, sold via outside salesman to industrial end users. Last year Sears closed down this division and asked Danaher to give them selected industrial accounts that sold Armstrong, etc. (of which my company is one) to sell Craftsman Industrial. We agreed to it, price wise you can buy cheaper at the local Sears if it's on sale. They supply us with several municipal and institutional accounts to sell to. Another great thing is Sears has an Ebay store where they auction off a lot of Craftsman stuff. You can really buy cheaper than what our cost is. I think they may move slow inventory, closeouts etc. In my opinion, Craftsman is an excellent tool. Now if you want to hear what happened to Proto hand tools, I'll post it.
Don

 

I'd like to hear it. I have some 3/4 drive Proto stuff. Haven't used it enough to know about the quality.

Other brands I have and am curious about - Billings? The "Diamond Tool & Horseshoe Co"?

 

Is SK still selling tools? I heard that they are not, don`t know if it is just in Canada. They were ok but I prefer Craftsman. Sears have nice sets on 1/2 price sale quite often, a really good deal.

 

From what I've seen over the years the younger crowd is all hyped up over Snap-On, Matco, and Mac. Maybe they've been brain washed in school but for whatever reason so be it. For the youngster coming out of school thats a lot of money. Old timers and most journey man will agree buy as much as you can from Sears. Save your money for beer.
Here's my take. I don't have room to talk cause I have a couple trailer size matco boxes. some things you can buy Craftsman and some you cant. Here's my small list feel free to add.
-wrenches and rachets of the Proffesional series are just as good or the same.
sockets- just as good but on deeps you might want both sears and Snap-on.
Tool boxes no way. Craftsman isn't even close to a Matco box and Matco makes the best box period.
Torque wrenches would only buy snap or matco
meters its all up to you. I use a 20 radio shack all the time because I dont wanna ruin my $700 fluke. " I work outdoors sometimes."
Air tools only Ingersol Rand, trust me on that one.
Cordless drills anyone but i lean towards Craftsman Proffesional.
Cordless Impact NOBODY beats Sanp-on's hands down winner.

 

dabmdb...tell us about Proto? I used to be in the tooling industry along time ago. Proto made some good tools. I have some Proto tools that were my Grandfathers and they are still in good shape.

fomoko...I still see some SK advertised, try a web search for them if your looking for SK. Someone had some SK on EBay last week too.

 

all i know is craftsman's ratchets have gone downhill, i hate using them

i broke down and got me a 1/4, 3/8 and 1.2 drive ratchet from snapon and i dont have ratchet problems anymore

 

In our company (which my father started in 1947) Proto was our main industrial hand tool line, it was owned by Ingersol Rand. The Proto brand originally started out as The Plumb Tool Company in Los Angeles. Old tools marked Plumb Tool are nice collectables. We sold a lot of Proto, to factories, farms and mechanics especially gouys that worked on heavy equipment. Maybe about 15 years ago, IR put Proto up for sale. It was purchased by Stanley Tool Works as they were looking for an industrial hand tool line. Stanley had originally purchased Mac but then sold it to buy Proto. It wasn't long before we started to see some decline in quality in the now Stanley Proto line. The main thing that irked most of us was they brought in wrench "blanks" from Asia, machined them into the final product in the US and labeled them Made in USA. The quality of the tool steel was quite different. We eventually dropped them for Armstrong hand tools. I forgot to mention that Danaher Corp also owns Matco.
Don

 

Another interesting thing was that when we got returns from Proto, we gave the defective tools back to the rep and he had to destroy them for liability reasons and also so they didn't get returned for a second time. Our rep used to dump buckets of tools into the water on fishing trips. A few years ago one of our grading customers uncovered several buried old rusty 55gal drums of tools down where the old Plumb Tool factory was. Another old hand tool company we sold next to Proto was Williams (I think JH Williams). Another good line, had some labor disputes years ago which shut it down, re-emerged several years later but was never the same. Like a lot of old US manufacturing, they were originally family owned. Channellock is still owned by the original family. In my opinion, when a big company buys out these companies, a lot of cost cutting, save a buck stuff goes on all to the expense of quality. Lines are merged, some brands disappear completely. Most of your automotive jack brands are owned by one company and made overseas. Lincoln was the last company to build in the US but now they build overseas.
Don

 

Thanks for that current info Don, that was interesting . I used to work for a Tooling Wharehouse distributor about 20 years ago here in norther CA. We carried Proto, SK, Easco, etc. They had 140 different lines in the warehouse. I used to love going into stores out in the country and industrial areas as they loved Proto and used all the big stuff which = big $$ . Whatever Happened to Utica-Bonney, they made some really good stuff that was very comparable to SnapOn and their torque wrenches were carried and recommened by most of the SnapOn, Mac and Matco guys back then? I have some of everything from being in the business and inheriting family tools. The factory guys would come to the sales meetings and give each of us whatever new set of tools they had out to show around and get orders. The best part was we got to keep the tools after we showed them around!

 

I don't know about Utica-Bonney. SK is now owned by a French company, FACOM. Consolidated Devices Inc aka CDI makes really good torque wrenches, etc. and is now owned by Snap On. I was calling on customers out in the field for several years, most all of these tool companies we are talking about were well received. But Snap On makes some really trick end-tools that other companies just don't have. I've always considered the Snap On product to be at the top of the list. But you really PAY for it and in most cases the lower priced competition is more than adequate. I had also built up a huge amount of hand tools myself. I just sent them all back to Georgia where my wife and I just finished a second home. I have nothing out here in California now and I'm going to replace my tools as needed with Craftsman.
Don

 

Thanks ,I will try it. Not looking rite now but in case I need some tools replaced (under warranty) it is nice to know that SK is still around. Still have SK tools that my dad got in the 50`s!

 

Sears is selling SK tools in their Craftsman catalog. I did a double take.

 

I like Craftsmans tools I have had snap-ons before but when you break them you have to wait for them to show up at your shop to replace the broken tool. Some times that could mean almost a week. With the Craftsman tools I can at least jump in the pickup take a 10 min. ride and get a new and be on your way to getting the project done that you had started. Yes snap-on tools are nice but they are over priced & over rated. I got my 1st Craftmans set back when I was a kid & had not paid for a broken tool since. Two thumbs up for Craftsman tools.

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I buy SK tools out of a local tool store that sells all kinds of industrial and automotive tools.

 

my tools pay the bills round here and i keep craftsman right next to snap-on, mac, and s&K. The thing i like is if i break one on sunday afternoon i can run to sears, get a new one, and get back to work. Try and get a snap-on replacement on a day he don't come to the shop!!!!