Recent content by angusp

Factory Gear in Tokyo has almost no Vessel tools. Some home improvement stores have a decent selection. In the regional areas there’s Cainz and there’s a Hands in Shibuya (Near Jins) that has some things too. The best I’ve seen were the huge Joyful Honda home improvement stores near Utsonomiya.

Factory Gear Namba is right there in the popular tourist part of Osaka. It’s a small store but has a decent stock and offers tax-free. If there’s something specific you want you could have them buy from that store if they have it in stock. You could also order some things from Amazon Japan and...

I forgot to post about these in my last Japan trip update; I found these Toyo T-192 tool boxes stamped with the Snap-on logo. Reasonably priced at around $19 each. I’ve never seen Snap-on branded Toyo tool boxes so I thought this was a unique find. The boxes are marked made in Japan just like...

I found myself in Japan again, just a few weeks after the last trip. This time I visited the Yokohama Factory Gear store. This location had a lot more hand tools than the Tokyo and Osaka store, although sadly they don’t offer tax-free sales which I found out at the register. I got a few...

Either Amazon Japan, or Ehime Machine. The latter is cheaper per-item but you need to use a forwarder like Blackship. Depending on how much you order it can work out better than Amazon.

Any recommendations for Made in Japan stubby or low profile torx and hex bit sockets? Something like these Mayhew sets, but hopefully higher quality and more durable.

They do, but only in 1/4” drive. They use 3 balls to hold the 12pt fastener head. Ko-ken have sockets for an impressive amount of fastener types, some that I’ve never even heard of, but you need to dig into their catalog to discover them all. My specific use-case are 10mm and 12mm 12pt nuts on...

As I gradually convert and expand more of my toolbox to Ko-ken sockets and ratchets, I have a wish list for what I’d like to see from them in 2025; Zeal series e-torx sockets Metric 12pt nut grip sockets (only SAE is available right now) Locking flex head ratchets (or less floppy flex heads...

I hadn’t seen any Deen tools until I saw it all at the Osaka store. I thought the laser engravings looked especially cheesy/cheap. I don’t get the appeal since it seemed similarly priced to Koken/KTC but not made in Japan. The only thing it seemed to have going for it was the wide range, if you...

I just returned from the last of a handful of extended layovers in Japan, while I was in a nearby country for work. I have a few experiences that might be of interest to those in this thread. Blackship Pickup One layover I had around 6 hours and made one of my goals for that one to pickup the...

The Koken USA markup is beyond unreasonable, in my opinion. Take RS3300MZ/12 set for example. $190.50 from Koken USA or currently ¥14,482/$95 from Amazon Japan. Buying from Amazon Japan is a no brainer, I can definitely understand why Koken USA would try to shut that down.

It seems comparable to Amazon priority. For ~$40/year you get Prime for which gives you free shipping to the forwarder. Blackship has a shipping calculator on their website. For a 3kg (6.6lb) 30x20x10cm (11x8x4") package they quote about ¥8,000 for DHL, which is roughly what Amazon changes...

A few items slipped through, but a while ago everything Ko-ken in my cart/lists went from available to "does not ship to this address" seemingly overnight. Similar to what happened with Amazon Germany with Wera/Wiha/Knipex a few years ago. I might try out Blackship, DM me a referral code if you...

I went a few pages back but didn't see it mentioned; Did anyone else notice that recently (within last few months) Amazon Japan will no longer ship any Ko-ken tools to the US? Looks like the local distributors/retailers may have complained and got exports blocked from Amazon.

The Bahco drawer capacities are a bit confusing. It looks like there’s a regular model with 30kg and a “premium” model with 45kg. Definitely under the 54kg of the 27” HF roll cab but not too far off. The total load capacities are interesting though. HF lists the 27” as having 1,200lb or 544kg...