I'd agree with sberry that the quality of cheaper tools has improved tremendously over the past few decades.
When I started using spanners for a living, I was given a Britool 1/2" socket set and an assortment of double-ended ring spanners and screwdrivers by my folks to get me on my way. Shortly after that, I heard the siren call of the S-O man and his big fancy truck.
For a few years I was a S-O *****, like a crack addict never far away from his dealer, not quite up to my eyeballs in debt but always had something rolling along on the S-O account book.
It was nice, using those S-O tools, but I also became aware that others coveted them too. There's nothing much lower in this world than a creature who will steal a man's tools. That was one particular shop and one or two particular people - never had the same trouble since, but time and circumstances saw various holes appear in my kit.
Fast forward a couple of/ three decades and I started to acquire tools to fill the gaps, casting around, looking for decent quality at non-S-O prices. That's when I became aware of the huge improvement in budget tool brands. Back then, cheap tools were usually pretty **** to use and they broke or wore out fast. It's not the same now - I suppose the biggest factor in the cost of production now is the low pay element of many of the Chinese or Asian factories and comparing like-with-like in hardware terms then and now, the same tool (S-O copies, many of them, since S-O patents and designs expired) is coming in a a fraction of the price.
I'm still desirous of replacing much of the S-O kit I lost, and am hunting out direct (used) replacements, an item at a time, as I recall with a start "****, I used to have one of those, who nicked or borrowed it?".
Anyway, being as I'm more-or-less retired now and not pushing tools for a living any more, I have to buy in a budget-conscious fashion and have been keeping an open mind about the cheapies, while avoiding the junk. My main spannering these days is simply maintaining my personal transport, so there's no real need for pro equipment but it's still nice to use something of reasonable quality without worrying if it's going to break.
Oddly, the Aldi and Lidl chains both have hand tool offers from time to time that turn out to be halfway decent and I've scored a few of their spanner sets - firstly to fill the gaps, but secondly to see how long they last. So far, they haven't let me down but they're not pushed too far anyway.
So, in summary; cheap tools can be ok - but if I were starting out again I'd buy good ones, and I'd have a vicious dog on a chain next to my kit.
