Facom surprise...Taiwan!

[afazz]

I bought two Facom thin open-end wrenches from Mcmaster, 31.14x15 and 31.16x17. MSC and Ultimate Garage also sell them, but nobody mentions a country of origin. I was a bit surprised to see Taiwan, especially at $20 each. They're still half the price of Snap-on or Mac so I can't really complain, but I was expecting somewhere in Europe.

How much of the Facom line is coming from Asia these days? Does anyone else make decent thin wrenches?

My camera died, here's a phone pic of the label. It's such a bad picture I'm just going to leave a link!
http://i455.photobucket.com/albums/qq280/afazz65/Tools/facom.jpg

 

[Joe B.]

The are owned by Stanley Black and Decker now. This is consistent whit their strategy used on other brands.

 

[dkroth]

Steve (UltGar) did mention this here a few weeks ago, and may have mentioned it before. I haven't see it on his site, however.

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?p=1117926#post1117926

 

[stricht8]

That is weak! No more FACOM tools for me.

 

[catfish]

I think the only thing black and deckers still makes in the USA is the powershot 'pro' stapler
The one with 90%+ negative reviews on amazon because it jams up every 5 minutes
I wish they would stop running brands into the ground

 

[Jononon]

This has been mentioned dozens of times on the site. I don't know why Steve still thinks the 440s are made in the Czech Republic though

ETA: The sad thing (if you don't want to buy non-Western imports) is that the current production are at least the equal of the French items in terms of fit and finish and that the 440s have a fair claim to be the best wrenches currently available irrespective of brand and COO.

 

[doctorschmullus]

Its official, I hate stanley black in decker,
got a new motto for them

"taking your countries tools and making them chinas tools, for still the same price"

Sidchrome
facom
mac etc
taiwan **** now

epic fail

 

[wrenchr]

That is weak! No more FACOM tools for me.

Yup they are a FACOM joke!!!

 

[Monte]

you could print out this pic and glue it to your wrench !!

 

[american lockpicker]

This is depressing. I've been wanting some Facom but its not worth it at any price if its not made in France. It would be nice if they at least had a premium line of French made tools and sold them at higher prices.

 

[Monte]

This is depressing. I've been wanting some Facom but its not worth it at any price if its not made in France. It would be nice if they at least had a premium line of French made tools and sold them at higher prices.

even higher prices ???
Harry Epstein has some NOS french stuff

 

[geaugafletcher]

Back in the fusty dark shelves of my memory, there's a pamphlet claiming Facom and TopTul come from the same place and for some time now...

 

[Jononon]

This is depressing. I've been wanting some Facom but its not worth it at any price if its not made in France.

It wasn't ever all made in France. It is, however, more than worth the money.

Oh god, does this mean we get to have the mind-boggling tedious COO threads about another brand?

I can't wait until you lot notice where S-o now has most of its electronic items made

 

[mofo62]

Im so sad.I Love Facom but...

 

[Toolhorder]

This has been mentioned dozens of times on the site. I don't know why Steve still thinks the 440s are made in the Czech Republic though

ETA: The sad thing (if you don't want to buy non-Western imports) is that the current production are at least the equal of the French items in terms of fit and finish and that the 440s have a fair claim to be the best wrenches currently available irrespective of brand and COO.

I would have to disagree there, no frenchy/taiwan wrench is going to take that claim. SO's are pretty hard to beat.