Channellock Adjustable Wrench

[jontar]

I think I'm going to buy a new 18in for work and I'm undecided on on which one, its between the Klein 507-18 and the Channellock/Irega 18, price is within $5.00 of one another.

I was looking on flea-bay, and started to wonder, did Channellock make an adjustable wrench before, its partnership with Irega?

www.channellock.com/adj-wrenches.aspx

I like the channelocks, but being an electrician, Klein is like the snap on is to mechanics.

 

[Exceller8]

I have one Channellock adjustable wrench and I really love it.

 

[willhollin]

Both made by Irega aren't they?

 

[Rogue1987]

The Channel Locks are awesome.

 

[SMKS]

Both made by Irega aren't they?

Klein makes their own adjustable wrenches in the USA.

Here's a video showing some of their manufacturing. You can see adjustable wrenches being made.

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[cgv69]

I have one Channellock adjustable wrench and I really love it.

+1 - I have a full set of the Channellock/Irega adjustable wrenches and IMO, this is one time were the foreign made product outshines the US made equivalents

 

[jeffmoss26]

I have an older Channellock US made adjustable, and have seen others around the shop at work.

 

[willhollin]

Must be some of them made by Irega then.

Download the Hi-res photo on this page -

http://www.service.kleintools.com/T...city WRENCHES-ADJUST-ADJSTDCAP/Product/500-18

 

[SMKS]

Must be some of them made by Irega then.

Download the Hi-res photo on this page -

http://www.service.kleintools.com/T...city WRENCHES-ADJUST-ADJSTDCAP/Product/500-18

It's possible they've outsourced making some of the big ones like that 18"

But the photo of this 8" clearly shows "USA"

http://www.service.kleintools.com/T...pacity WRENCHES-ADJUST-ADJEXCAP/Product/507-8

 

[willhollin]

Yeh I see the majority are US made, the first one I clicked on happened to be that 18".

 

[plumber84]

Previously the Channellock adjustables were made by western forge. When they started using Irega they were the standard model 92 wrenches however recently Irega have started supplying Channellock with a wide opening version that has a 4 notch worm screw rather than the previous 3 notch model. The Klein adjustable wrenches are very high quality and USA made, although there was some disagreement on a recent thread here saying they were made in Spain now?.

 

[jontar]

Well if the Klein 18in is built in Spain, I'll most likely be buying that one, it doesn't look like an Irega though or Bahco/Snap off, The spanish do make the best adjustables followed very close by Klein and the 500-18 is both.

 

[HandyManny]

Go with the Channellock adjustable. Irega makes some of the best adjustable wrenches in the world. A tough, light weight, and well balanced tool. Pretty high quality for the money. I like the Irega's overall feel and function better than the few Kliens I've used.

 

[HandyManny]

+1 - I have a full set of the Channellock/Irega adjustable wrenches and IMO, this is one time were the foreign made product outshines the US made equivalents

If you look around you'll find that there are and have always been lots of foreign made products that outshine some, if not many of the US made stuff. In tools it's no different.

Problem is that for much of my life my generation only knew mostly USA made stuff and had little to compare it to.