You've restated your opinions with the title "Fact:." That's now how this works.
Plus, you're only arguing that SK-Facom was inferior to Facom (most of which was made in Europe at the time they owned SK, not Taiwan). Details, details.
Fact:
3) Facom never adopted any SK tool designs (SK did adopt Facom designs, tho)
4) Facom lost faith in SK mgmt (after being sold by Facom...SK then went bankrupt)
We could go on with this story...
So Proto then also is inferior to Facom because Proto has brought in Facom products (the 72T round head ratchets) while Facom has not adopted any Proto tools? Also is Snap On inferior to Kastar/Lang since they rebadge some of their stuff? Wright tools is inferior to SK because they adopted the Ideal/SK/WF/PR adjustable wrenches and screwdrivers? Wright is inferior to Irwin Vice grips because they also sell those? Matco is inferior to Armstrong for using the 88T ratchet design? Mac is inferior to Proto for rebadging their sockets? Snap On inferior to Grip On? Proto also inferior to Grip On too?
Rebadging successful and quality tools from another manufacturer, never mind a business partner, doesn't make a tool brand inferior, it means they are taking advantage of a good tool that someone else makes.
Plus, the only SK brought in were the 72T Round Head ratchets (which are a top tier design in 3/8 drive, not so great in 1/4 or 1/2...) and the screwdrivers. That 3/8 Drive Tuff 1 mechanism is one of my favorites though and the only ratchet in 3/8 and 1/2 I haven't replaced with Snap Ons.
SK cold forged sockets > Facom Taiwan machined sockets. That's a fact. Cold forged > machined. Cold forging results in a more uniform and less stressed crystal structure of the steel, resulting in more strength. A lot of Taiwan OEMs machine sockets instead of forge. I'm pretty sure SK didn't cold forge their sockets when owned by Facom, so Facom-SK and Facom-Taiwain I wouldn't be able to make as easy of an argument about which is better without testing.
When did Facom loose faith in SK management? They literarily WERE Sk management. Feel free to prove me wrong with a link to something proving this, but just making general statements with no proof (as you generally do on this forum) isn't how this works. I'm pretty sure they just saw a better opportunity with the larger SBD tool conglomerate.
5) SK management has a long history of sloppy QC and variable quality
6) Worse, they seem lazy and unapologetic about it...
When the vast majority of those QC "complaints" for Ideal SK were that the sockets weren't painted on the inside, which isn't a QC issue, did they really have a long and sloppy history? They've had their mistakes, but so has every other brand out there. Under independent management, there were quite a bit of mistakes (more explained about that management below), but how does that reflect on current SK?
Here is a thread recently about a Proto order. All the tools were 100% functional and worked well. Yet these are some of the same complaints that people had about SK (I'm entirely sarcastic in my first post for those who aren't the best at picking up on that).
http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=346083
If you're talking about older SK, how the hell is that relevant to the current company (same goes for your Facom SK arguments).
At least they haven't had to redesign one of their ratchets because of a design flaw the first time around (Snap On). Or that they repeatedly broached flare nut wrenches off center for a few years (Also Snap On).
Furthermore, SK Erik usually appears in almost every thread where concerns about SK quality are brought up. The company is more than willing to work with customers to solve issues and replace tools if necessary.
SK was a company designed to compete with Craftsman, not Snap On.
Again, that is historical FACT...do some research into their old sales and marketing materials.
SK has never been a high-end tool company. That simply is not their target market. With that comes lower quality materials, cheaper and lazy-ier QC, and designs that get updated very rarely, if at all.
They are not junk, so I would have no issue recommending them, as I did earlier in the thread.
But to say they are on par with any of the better brands is vastly overstating the case...
There are much better USA brands to feel partiotic about...with less embarrassing QC for those interested
SK was a company that existed before craftsman (so that eliminates "designed to compete with Craftsman"). Furthermore, it was designed to fulfill government contracts, the same thing that Snap On did at the time. They later expanded into selling to consumers (and even making craftsman tools during certain eras). Even Snap On, however, has advertised against Craftsman before, since Craftsman owns the largest market share (while not the most profitable name in tools (that would go to Snap On), they do occupy the largest market share of pro and non pro users). So Snap On must also have been designed to compete against Craftsman
Their sockets, wrenches, screwdrivers, pliers, punches/chisels, extensions, impact sockets, pry bars, and several other tools have been updated several times and even completely changed a few times. About the only thing that hasn't been updated is their ratchets (which will hopefully finally be addressed soon as their 3/8 and 1/2 drive ratchets are far behind the competition of Snap On, Matco, and Mac). Their wrenches have been changed from the RP type to the full polish, and even those full polish have received several dimensional changes over the years (most notably in thinning down the open end).
What lower quality materials are they using? What inside info do you have about the materials they are using? Or are you making assumptions again?
And again, we can reference the Flare nut wrenches from Snap On that took them quite a while to address, or the 1/2 drive ratchets having to be redesigned, or the recent threads on things like Snap On sockets being forged backwards (drive and 12 point end switched), or I can take photos of my most recent Snap On wrench purchase with another box end forged off center or any of the other complaints about new Snap On tools having problems? Every company has QC things that slip by.
Yep, its opinion that SK is better quality than Facom. Or that Facom owned SK and dropped them like a bad habit. And that SK went bankrupt within a couple of years. Or that SK has had "40 years of consistent quality"
Those are all factual matters easily verified by anyone well versed in "the facts" (and that has read the news), and compared tools side by side.
Sk went bankrupt shortly after being dropped because the independent owners just wanted to milk SK for all it was worth and then get rid of it in bankruptcy. It was literally a Ed Lampert type of move- get all the money we can out of this, don't invest anything back into, cut wages and benefits to increase profit, then dump it in bankruptcy and walk away with millions. As proven by Ideal, Sk is a highly viable company if you actually invest in necessary equipment like forging machines to make the tools (which the independent owners between Facom and Ideal did not do). Who knew that to run a business you actually have to invest money into the tools that make your products if you don't want to fail?!?
You seem to have part of the story here and are drawing misguided inferences from this.
Yelling FACT doesn't make your opinions FACT.
where you insinuate that one company that owns the other must produce better product.
