Mob is another company where COO is a bit of a mystery to me. I think they manufacture in France and Germany, but I'm not sure if they mostly outsource or not for things like spanners and sockets. They have some interesting looking tools.
MOB is originally an old forge from Chambon-Feugerolle (near Saint-Étienne, the tool city). Their hammers are from there, and very well-regarded around here. Wrekking/crowfoot bars are from this factory too, I think. Over time, they bought many other tool makers, famous ones are:
- Talabot, a file maker (from Saint-Juéry, like Auriou). MOB have closed the original factory. I read that they have sold the production machines from the original factory to India. It seems MOB set up a joint venture ("JK Talabot") with JK Files & Tools (apparently the world biggest manufacturer of files and rasps) in 2005, when they closed the Talabot factory in France. So their files may be made in India (there is a blurry picture of a factory in the 2018 catalogue, could be a lead...). I have one of their files, and it has a pretty good quality, not comparable with the cheapest at least.
- Peddinghaus, a German hammer maker. So, some of the MOB hammers must be made in Germany... XStriker models, maybe? This part is not very clear.
- There are also Magnat vises, that may have come from Peddinghaus. Or maybe they bought them separately. Don't know if they are still made in Germany.
- IUS from Romania, a wrench (and pliers and screwdrivers?) maker. They have built another factory in Brasov, which they like to brag about. Their wrenches, pliers, screwdrivers, sockets, torque tools, storage elements come from there. Some other tools too ( chisels). I remember reading here that the quality of wrenches decreased from the old IUS days.
- Roger Mondelin, who makes tools for plaster, panels installation, building tools in general. All made in France I think.
- Schröder from Germany, who makes screwdriving bits, extractors, and good-looking tap wrenches. Still made in Germany I think.
- Leborgne from France, a forge making gardening, forestry, construction tools. Pretty expensive tools, all made in France I think.
They bought other smaller manufacturers too, making cold chisels, leather/rubber punches, wood chisels, trowels, wooden mallets.
The products in their 2018 catalogue are accompanied with little pictures with "Made in France", "Made by MOB", "Created by MOB", and some tools have nothing. For spanners/wrenches, most things are "Made by MOB", but not ratcheting wrenches (imported from Taiwan?), socket wrenches ("Created by MOB"), and adjustables (one "Created" and patented, and others, generic-looking, without anything).
For some reason it seems that they forgot to apply these categories to some sections spanner/wrenches: screwdrivers and pliers are not marked as made by MOB in the catalogue although other parts of the website clearly indicate that. I think they also may not apply the "Made in france".
One thing I wonder about is their hacksaw, they say it has "probably" the highest tension of them all (190 kg).
