Made in China is not a garantee that it is of bad quality, neither is
made in the UK, USA or Germany a garantee that it is of good quality.
Some German tools are absolute crap, we know what happened to the
British car industry because of their quality and US products are hardly
known accross the pond apart from air planes.
It all comes down to what specifications an item is made to and we also
have to consider that DIN, SAE, ISO, EU etc. standards should only be
regarded as minimum requirements. Most seriously produced items well
exceed these standards.
In general:
Expensive means that the chance of the item being of at least of
reasonable quality is higher than of cheap items, but some cheap items
are as good or better than expensive items. This is especially so with
hand tools.
Snap-on, Facom, Belzer, Hazet are all good quality and expensive. But
some of the cheap Chinese tools are just as good but the brands change
so fast you cannot keep track of them. What is different is often the
finish of the product.
Years ago (ca. 1985) I did a consumer test on handtools: an expensive
set of socket spanners from Stahlwille (ca. $400) was of less quality
than the same cheap Chinese made set from the HEMA (say the Dutch
equivalent of Sears) at around $40. OK the chrome plating on the Chinese
set was crap, but is was stronger, more wear resistant (harder) and more
accurate on sizes (which is very important).
Kees Oudesluijs
NL
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