Craftsman Tools: USA vs China [Part 1] - Multi Brand Comparison - 

Which is why I have begun buying my Craftsman wrenches on the secondary market. Only buying Made in the USA

I agree with you Demetrios; however, that isn't the point of this video. The fundamental point is to demonstrate how the Sears Holding Corporation goes about presenting the Craftsman brand and their commitment/obligation to customers, both past and present. The former forged American made Craftsman tools were superior and they have been phased out by an inferior cast/stamped Chinese Craftsman tool. Sears still expects you to pay the premium you would have originally for the USA version; yet, you are paying for a lower quality piece. This issue is compounded when you warranty your USA Craftsman tool. For nearly 100 years you would get a USA made Craftsman replacement for your malfunctioning or broken USA Craftsman made tool no questions asked. Snap On, Matco, etc still maintain this warranty today. In contrast to those aforementioned brands, where you would get an USA equivalent exchange in both COO and quality, today Craftsman you get a Chinese tool, a significant downgrade for your warranty exchange. This goes against the fundamental principle of an equivalent exchange and thus more-or-less makes the warranty worthless. In the instance of Craftsman, you are trading a Cadillac for a Chevy Corsica. When I bring in the "other" no-name, Stanley, Chinese Craftsman, and USA Craftsman tools into the video, I am using the 3 non-USA tools to demonstrate they are inferior to the USA Craftsman tool AND how the Chinese Craftsman tool compares to the no-name & Stanley tool. What do you get for what you pay? Not much. Sure, in general the Chinese/Taiwanese Craftsman tool may be a bit better than Harbor Freight, Stanley, etc. but not for the price that Sears thinks you should pay for the tools. You are basically buying the name only, so, yes, I agree with you, at this rate one may as well go out an buy a tool truck brand tool. It is literally that simple. No one is complaining how they want their Craftsman tool (the Cadillac) to be the equivalent to a tool truck brand tool (the Ferrari). It is a critique in the loss of quality with the Craftsman brand and a broken promise with the brand warranty.

I just bought a 10 piece from sears just now to Check the quality. Looks like the Wal-Mart brand "Hyper Tough" line with a Craftsman Logo.

I ended up with the same 28 piece 6pt set in Feb 2015. I went and visited a friend in MD at the time and was able to exchange many of them at different Sears stores along the drive. The remaining ones I bought individually from Sears and 2/3 of them were still USA stock individually. I kept the US ones and returned the china ones. A few I had to purchase on eBay. I ended up with all USA ones except the 1" one. Seems as that one was not available in open stock and haven't seen one on eBay.

thanks for doing this video. I have seen some of these craftsman wrenches in my toolbox and thought they seemed different but could not figure out what the Made in U.S.A. is what . So Thanks again.

I purchased the 28 piece 6 point combo wrenches a few days ago and I was highly disappointed with the lack of quality in almost every wrench. I'm on the fence of selling them for a better quality wrench set. Great video you have here

do you think craftsman could be American made again someday? probably a longshot but wishful thinking.

Check out Wilde Tool. Hand tools manufactured in Kansas.

great video - I recently went all snap on , mac , sk , and photo

I have a question. I purchased a set of tools around 2012. While i threw out the box, it still have the bags for the Allen wrenches and midget wrenches. Both say the tools were made in USA. The wrenches do not indicate their country of origin. Is there any way to tell were they were made?

Thanks for posting. The Chinese made Craftsman tools are cheaply made, about 2/3 the weight of their USA counterparts and ratchets now have plastic levers. Can't see plastic holding up too long in every day use. Also, if you go to return a broken ratchet to Sears and they do not have a refurb on hand they will not give you a new one off the shelf. So much for the life time warranty. This is why Sears is closing many of its stores and Harbor Freight is thriving.

Try the small towns Ace Hardware they still have old craftsman stock available. If you are willing to drive to a small town plus the people are much nicer. Or try garage sales, swapmeets, etc. Good luck.

I recently acquired the USA set of the 6pt Craftsman wrenches. They are significantly better than the Chinese 6pt Craftsman wrenches I show on this video. After two attempts at getting a USA set from Sears and getting the Chinese version, I returned what I received and bought the USA set from a 3rd party vendor. In the future, if I get access to another Chinese 6pt Craftsman wrench I will directly compare it to my new USA 6pt Craftsman and post the video here on RU-vid.

Thanks for the response

Craftsman tools made by Western Forge are great tools, and would Last for years. Its a shame they don't make them in America.

"PROTO" makes 6 point combination wrenches made in U.S.A..They have two versions,coarse and polished finish.I just ordered some.

.....also, the made in Taiwan Stanley is likely a higher quality wrench than the made in China Craftsman....

I love Craftsman tools an still have my set I bought in like the early 2000s, started hanging out with my aunts boyfriend whos been a mechanic for probably 40yrs or more an he's done gave me like 2-3 Craftsman toolboxes(4 total) an a couple piles of tools several being old Craftsman wrenches/ratchets etc... I havent been to Sears lately to buy any of the new stuff they are putting out

There are people who never realised that there was a difference in the quality of tools. I just use them sometimes and don't bother about the quality. Only once I noticed a quality difference that bothered me, with screwdrivers. Some were rendered useless after applying force on it. But otherwise it simply never occured to me. So, I learned from this video. I must have missed something, as my father was a car mechanic professionally. He talked a lot about cars, but never about the quality of tools.

Off topic what is the difference between wrenches Material made from chrome molybdenum and Chrome vanadium steel. Is one stronger than other?

Sgt Pnkks I can get behind what you are saying. Unfortunately, as financial noose tightens around Sears, an inevitable decline in quality followed suit for Craftsman. This is a typical trend for most struggling brands. From a corporate standpoint I can understand cost savings/profit measures you'd have to take with a brand. You run into two dilemmas: 1) How do you maximize profit without sacrificing quality? 2) If you cannot achieve the innovation to satisfy the aforementioned how far can you sacrifice quality without alienating or losing your core consumer? The reality with Sears is that they couldn't push the Craftsman brand lower (cheaper) without destroying the brand reputation and keep it made in the USA. Logically, moving the brand to China would allow Sears to attempt to maintain the brand without bleeding capital for an already financially strapped company. The problem with the outsourcing is that Craftsman wasn't just a tool brand but an American lexicon. The brand has an asomatous aspect that goes beyond the physical tool itself. It is a piece of Americana. It was the "Every Man" tool that formally had a great value and a very accessible price. This is why people get up at arms about Craftsman's COO now being China vs the USA.

I hope you sent them back, and told them you will never purchase tools from them that aren't made in the USA.

And this is why I jumped ship from buying Craftsman....and what I feel is the final nail in the Sears coffin.

Great overview. No more Chinese tools for me. The smaller sizes strip easily after a few uses when working on rusted automotive bolts. Also not worth the warranty to get a new Chinese tool that will break again. Vicious cycle. Taiwan tools are not bad - Gearwrench and Grey Pneumatic Duo socket sets. Also like SK and when going 12 point small size wrenches I prefer SnapOn.

You need to go on ebay to buy the American (USA) Craftsman wrenches, sockets and screwdrivers. For now, there are still plenty available at good prices. I've done that reciently. I like snap on ratchets and wrenches too but the USA craftsman sockets are my preference vs snap on which are overpriced for what you get

Good video by the way for those who are unaware of the inferior quality of chinese made tools

Sears is definitely history.. there are some very nice affordable high quality tools available......from various outlets. ... Sears seems to be on a suicide mission

1) I had a lug nut on my car that really stuck on, somehow. Leaned on it with my craftsman torque wrench (but see below), I'm not a big or strong guy, but ended up twisting my 40 year old craftsman 1/2 to 3/8 inch adapter. Looks funny but won't go into the socket any more. No biggie, i've busted the odd craftsman tool in the 40 years since i got the set and got a fine replacement, no questions asked (but see below). But this time.... the dread Chinacraftsman replacement. Meanwhile, I had the local Firestone take the lug nut off with an impact wrench, so I didn't have to try it with this piece of congealed Velveeta. But the next time I tried to take off a lug nut, at 80 lb-fts, the Chinacraftsman adapter instantly sheared off right at the neck where the 3/8 section is attached, so cleanly that the Sears cashier couldn't understand that the two pieces were once one tool, and not two separate gadgets. The guys in the tool section understood, of course and gave me a new one free. And you can pretty much figure out what happened after that, a few times, until I got tired of driving to Sears and got a random replacement from the nearby Home Depot which has held up fine under the terrible strain of 80 ftlbs. 2) I had an old Craftsman digging pitchfork, for a few years (not 40 years. maybe 10). Eventually, I managed to break the handle last year, took it back, got a replacement, you can see where this story is going. The irony is that the new, fibreglass handled Chinacraftsman wasn't that bad, the hollow fibreglass handle was pretty thick fibreglass and might have stood up, but the wooden stub reinforcing it down where the fork tines attached was only about an inch long, so of course the hollow fibreglass handle broke right above it. If the wooden reinforcement had been another 6 inches longer, the thing would probably have not broken. On the other hand, the Velveeta grade steel of the tines had bent all over the place anyway. Got an identical one for free replacement, tines kept bending under gentle use, so I ended up giving it to somebody who doesn't dig much. Bought a new Ames wooden handled one from that same Home Depot, and it seems identical to the old Craftsman. Oddly, there were two identical versions in the Home Depot bin, same SKU, but the new ones had a 20 year warranty and the old ones had a 30 year warranty. Funny; one company gives you the same lifetime warranty but gives you shoddier tools over time, the other gives you the same tool but a shorter warranty over time. 3) Anyway, the Craftsman torque wrench; one of the clicker wrenches, half inch, like 100 ftlbs, again 40 years old. The lock ring on the torque setting adjustment is just plastic, and cracked pretty early on, like after 10 years, so it stopped locking the adjustment down, so back to Sears I went back then. Turns out, the Craftsman lifetime warranty was for everything EXCEPT torque wrenches. They showed me where it said that on the package and everything. So I'm still using it with the cracked lock ring all these years later, and the funny thing is it still tests within spec on the calibration machine. But I have to watch that I don't move the adjustment accidentally while turning the wrench.

man I was lucky!!! I ordered same set in march and there was nothing wrong with the usa

Let's come at this from a different angle. Imagine if Sears had never sold tools. Then, let's say last year, they started a brand new line of tools called "Craftsman." (Made in China) Imagine how long it would be before everyone said, they are garbage compared to the rival priced tools. They are trading on the name, they are not Craftsman tools. They are Harbour Freight stamped Craftsman, probable made in the same factory. Stop being fooled by the men in suits picking up their big bonuses by deceiving you. The real shame is the men in suits will be retired on there yachts by the time a once great name is just a joke.

A sick company has stock that is more than a year old. Sears will be gone in several years. How careful are they with the heat treating? The alloy?

I think there are some Craftsman tools that are still made in the US... screwdrivers, the premium ratchets, and even some wrench sets. If you go online to Craftsman.com and look at the pricier sets, you will find sets that are US made. They don't seem to want to distinguish the US made sets though, which I think is a mistake by Sears. Also, I just bought a full set of Chinese-made full-polish wrenches which are actually impressive in quality and are much slimmer and longer than the standard set.

Interesting review. Thumbs up for harmonics test still do that on occasion for fun. well now shopping at my local Sears hardware brick n mortar store over the years you could see the writing on the wall. #1 The Average American consumer! (They dispose of anything broken even if it could be repaired) #2 products from China are not made to last. (nor be repairable without a "colege" degree in compfuser electronics) #3 I'm going to go out on a limb here and say Sears Corporate knew the market shift and could see plain as day the competitors were winning away to many shoppers looking for a weekend sale deal. So, to stop the flooding of the SS Sears-liner and stem the losses, extreme measures were taken. The saying, "damned if we do and damned if we don't." comes to mind and fits everything like a pair of robogrip pliers. Fyi; The Menard's big box store is the last place i've seen Made in USA. sockets/ wrenches right now in Illinois.

It's been years since I bought tools got a set of Craftman Tools and when I got them I could tell something was not right and finding out they stop making them in the USA that was the only reason I bought them and I will be returning them so sad for the company I grew up with and if they raise their prices to keep them in the great USA I would've paid more to keep them here

The Craftsman brand is responsible for quality. Own by the US?

I personal can not vouch for this but a man I know bought all craftsman tools. now as you can expect he did not get all U.S.A made tools. but as the Chinese made tools broke or malfunctioned (Which happened very rarely) he just used the lifetime warranty and traded it in for its U.S.A made counterpart.

If I'm gonna buy Chinese tools I'm going to harbor freight . I've notice craftsman Chinese tools are the same price as their American made tools were but lower quality, but harbor freight you pay Chinese prices for Chinese tools .

Thank you for making this and your other comparison videos TheseAreMyToys. This is very sad indeed. Previously, Craftsman hand tools were of legitimate quality. They made excellent gifts because you were giving or receiving a reputable tool. You cannot give someone a Chinese tool set as a gift, you just can't. Customers used to Craftsman hand tools being made in U.S.A. will probably purchase these tools on accident, only to find out later they got ripped off. Hopefully Sears can be shamed into returning their hand tools manufacture back to the U.S.A.

I stopped buying Craftsman tools after they began outsourcing to Chinese manufacturers. I loved seeing USA on the handle of every Craftsman tool I used. No Chinese Craftsman tools for me! All that's left are the classic red, blue and clear screwdrivers and a few types of pliers. It won't be long before those are gone. Sorry Sears...... you killed the Golden Goose!

Thanks for your opinion too bad craftsman doesn't seem to care anymore

The fit and finish of Craftsman is why I don't really buy anything from them anymore. Always hard on my hands. I went to Kobalt, MUCH smoother made tools and the price and warranty is the same. Plus, I don't have to deal with the assholes running the tool section at Sears.

I just bought the 9 pc Craftsman professional flare nut wrench set, they were made in China

Very few hand tools are made in the west anymore. In Australia the top brand to buy when I was a young bloke was SIDCHROME. They were made locally with very exacting standards and superior metallurgic composition. They pissed all over the cheap tools coming out of Japan (in the 60s it was Japan making crappy cheap stuff...not China) and India. You could easily snap a Japanese or Indian spanner back then but your vice would break before any cracks appeared in a Sidchrome spanner. Sure they were expensive but these were "all your life" tools and the company offered a lifetime guarantee. Now, just like your Craftsman, they are not made in their home country. You just have to believe that the companies maintain their own quality standards in the Chinese factories. By and large they do... the big Japanese and Korean electronics manufacturers run their own Chinese factories and they run them to their own strict quality standards. The worst thing you can do with hand tools is to buy no-name brands made in China or India. Sure, they'll be labelled "drop forged" and "Chrome Vanadium" but most of them are just crap...especially the screwdrivers. The slot and Phillips head tips usually burr the first time they meet an intransigent and locked screw. So the old credo applies..."You get what you paid for" and, my favourite (in Latin), "Caveat Emptor", which translates as "Let the buyer beware". Good documentary about tools and Sidchrome: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE--gGoFQx4bKI.html

A damn shame what became of Craftsman tools.

the later USA made stuff was almost as bad as the first run china.... the quality of craftsman started a slow and steady decline in the 90s then a sharp dropoff in the last couple years before the move to china i have a set of USA 6 points that are very rough

craftsman tool was of excellent quality, it is a pity that no longer manufactured in the USA. SEARS try and sell us a tool inferior to the price of a quality tool made in usa

I'm getting totally fed up of spending my hard earned money buying tools that I have no idea where there coming from and to what quality. For the home diy'er then yes the cheap stuff may work, but for someone like me who spends 9 hours a day, 5/6 days a week uses my tools all day long to earn my wages then I want the best. I used to think I was getting the best when I paid high prices but now I'm seeing we'll known makes qualitys dropping. It's not fair when u spend a lot of your wages on tools to earn your wages.

Honestly, the finish on the harbor freight stuff is better than those. I'd be hard pressed to purchase craftsman if this is their current offering.

Bottom line....will those "cheaper" wrenches turn a bolt/nut? yes they will, so yes it would be nice if made in USA, but if it works it works. Now dont get me wrong, I have broke a many Chinese wrenches, but I have also broke those big name brands as well, so nice video but it is what it is, I will continue to buy what I can afford and will continue to bust knuckles, and thats the way it is.

I work on machines with a lot of allen/hex screws and I use my allen/hex wrench set every working day for the last 25 years. In the years past I have owned craftsman and were happy enough with them, although for normal use I use Bondhus or Wera. Several months ago I was at another site away from my tools and needed allen wrenchs, so I dropped by Ace and bought a new set of SAE craftsman allens. I was mostly using the 3/32 and 5/64 and before I was on the 3rd screw the allen wrench stripped, they were useless pieces garbage. That day I threw the entire set away, they couldn't be trusted to get me through the day and worse they have the very real potential of damaging a set screw that's recessed into a hole. I determined that day that craftsman USED to be a brand I would buy and be happy to use but I will never buy anything craftsman again. It is a sad thing.

Thanks for the info . But that could have been said in half the time. It took a lot of discipline to watch.

las fabricadas en china son de la misma calidad que en EEUU , o son de mala calidad

Fuck Craftsman now.. Gonna start purchasing Snap on now even if its more expensive

To me Made in China usually means I would pay less for an inferior product, we shouldn't kid ourselves with unrealistic expectation

Seems like harbor freight stuff

China makes some of the best crap in the world! Some stores are almost exclusively filled from top to bottom with the stuff.

Chinese Craftsman is basically just Harbor Freight.

If all thngs are the same, a thinner head is not necessary better.as long as the wrench is thinner than the nut or bolt head,why would it approve access? Assuming the fastener is weaker than the wrench,a thin head is far more likely to round over a rusty fastener. I prefer a wrench or socket that is never going to need the warranty or fail while my hands are at risk . Give me a tool that I know is cold forged chrome moly and has been stamped properly with correct clearances... SK They are back in full operation after almost being obliterated under French ownership for 15 years.

Your dead on bro.

All the Chinese do well is reverse engineer or copy existing tools or other hardware, albeit at a much lower quality

He said 3/16" 😂😂😂😂

There are plenty of other Chinese and Taiwanese tools to buy that are better than Craftsman. Never mind the country of origin, Craftsman has poor wrenches and sockets these days.

I have 700 bucks of usa craftman works perfect

i'm not buying that crap. i haven't went back into sears since

i have a wide variety of tools. i have been collecting various tools since i was a teenager i am 35 years old now. i still have some of my old USA craftsman tools. i have a 1/2 craftsman breaker bar. i was using it on a stubborn panhard bold on my 96 camaro the other day. the breaker bar was flexing and i actually stopped...... im kind of attached to this older USA made tool that i bought brand new probably 15 years ago, im not going to break it. last time i was in sears i was highly pissed off and left the store. the wrenches made in china and the price was the same as the USA made tool.... look, sears if you are going to make your tools in china im buying harbor freight, the quality is no worse and sometimes better then your chinese made craftsman crap but the price is inexpensive in comparison. i used to buy mostly craftsman but now that its all made in china, harbor freight has been growing on my, especially the pittsburg pro line. i bought pittsburg pro impact sockets 1/2 drive chrome moly (decent material for impact sockets). i am damn impressed with them. nice quality tool at a more then reasonable price. I WILL NOT buy a china made craftsman product.... you have cheapened up your product and kept the price the same. that's the new evil corporate america way. i used to really like the craftsman USA made stuff, except the ratchets, they were always crap. SHAME on you sears you are selling to people that dont know any better anymore, people that dont do more then oil changes.

I went and looked at craftman today and it looked like cheap metals. It even poked me with meatal peaces hanging off. Its not craftsman. I hope they go back to usa.

A sears tech told me that the Chinese factory that was manufacturing Craftsman tools has been shut down and the operation returned to New Jersey. He said Sears will dump the Chinese junk thru sales and promotions and quietly return the American tools back onto the shelves. The lack of quality of the Chinese manufactured tools was obviously affecting their sales/reputation, as consumers realized the Chinese made Craftsman tools were no better than the Harbor Freight garbage.

Someone needs to bring a Class Action Lawsuit against Sears Holdings because the Warranty is NOT being honored with equal quality in the least. Sears stole your original purchase price and ran away. It is pure BS !!!

I think thats concerning is that the chinese seem incapable of making quality metals / steelold tools that are made in the uk, us, japan etc are solid, heavy and are indestructible...all i have seen form china is poorly refined steel that has hollow bits in it, that shears off, leaving tiny bubbles/gaps in the metal.the only things of quality out of china are IT equipment, laptops etc, but they are designed and engineered in the US / europe, with US / Euroean management and QAChina cannot and will not make anything of quality. an economy built on the foundations of being cheap and indeed, rubbish

I prefer SK over craftsman. China made tools are ........

It is unfair to be blaming China for the quality . Craftsman clearly issued a spec that they would find acceptable and that is what they got . They probably only wanted to pay cents per spanner and got what they asked for . Do you think they said they wanted drop forged and high spec alloy ,then accepted the lower spec ? Of course not . They wanted cheap so they could charge the max mark-up to the US consumer . One day you will be able to buy a quality Chinese tool from a Chinese company that bypasses the greedy US corporation .

for all the people who are complaining about craftsmen wrenches, stop being cheap and buy some real tools snap on, matco and mac. you'll never be disappointed by hand tool quality

honestly i wont buy chinese tools every time i used one it broke when chaftsman shipped their manufacturing to china i stopped buying them i think all americans should feel obligated to not buy products made in other countries as well just saying thats our jobs gone forever

no more craftsman for me i still have american choice

I will never bu craftsman again!! I boycotted all made in china products because of the garbage and the low wages.

China no good plástic

Seems like harbor freight stuff