As far as I'm aware/informed Kamasa is not a Japanese name or of Japan tool company origin.
The founder ZJ Kamasa was most likely Polish origin with some time in USA & Sweden.
Lot of of early (late 60's to mid 70's) tools was W Germany (lot of fairly low cost tooling production post war) Some of the stuff that got made in Japan possibly late70's to 80's could be pretty good but even the Japan made stuff varies in manufacturer/quality .
I picked up a 12pc metric ring spanner set today on a wrench ring organiser local to me off marketplace for 10bucks, it W Germany manufacture, okay but not amazing, will get chucked in one of the wagons for odd jobbing tasks .
Japan socketry can be a good used deal and have seen some half decent Japan wrenches with sizes stamped on open end flat face but never come across a full set of them and they not special enough want hunt hard for .
I am only going by the marketing / conversations at the time. I don’t doubt it differs from their current explanations, but that’s what I was told - even if it was 40 years ago!
Yes, mixed origins on the early Kamasa. I never saw it in the U.K. till the early 80’s if I recall correctly - maybe very late 70’s.
The majority, probably 80%, was made in Japan. This included all the socket sets, and also things like screwdrivers. The only things I recall being made in Germany were the wrenches. There were pliers, but I can’t recall the origins.
The German made wrenches never appeared to be “top tier” and I don’t think they sold particularly well. What I remember are the exact wrenches posted by fanders above.
The Japanese stuff was of better quality, certainly better finished, but not up to British tools of the time. Again, as pointed out earlier, there was some variation. Some was decent (surprisingly so) some not so much.
Here are parts of a 1/4” drive set I bought in the 80’s. Quality is O.K. - not top tier. The chroming was good at the time, but it’s starting to flake, and I doubt these tools would have taken hard use.
Within maybe a year of me buying this set the tools had changed to Taiwanese. Taiwanese tools in the 80’s were absolutely dreadful, and the Kamasa ones were no exception. They were identical to those sold under a number of brand names such as “Hilka” all of which were equal dross.
Some of the Japanese tools were very nice, such as these “ball point drivers”. They were costly at the time (for Japanese tools) so didn’t sell. I bought these many years later. They were very inexpensive as the reputation of Kamasa had by then been trashed, so were priced accordingly!
. I was just searching for decent socket set and was just pressing "order" for Facom rs.440e set they sell in Ebay for 120€.
