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US-made ratcheting wrenches?

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oxycodone

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Hi all. I received a small set of gearwrenches for christmas. I like them a lot, but I want to get a larger US-made set, and probably both metric and SAE.

After looking around a LOT on this board, it seems that many US company's ratcheting wrenches are still made in Taiwan. What ones are made in the US?

SK has a locking flex set that looks nice - http://skhandtool.com/Default.aspx?fusemode=10&pid=89900. Is this US made? Do I need to go with Snap-On?

Thanks fellas.
 
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li0nhart123

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i'm thinkn those are made in taiwan as well....probably made by gearwrench and rebranded...might be wrong though...someone else will pipe in and let us know for sure.
 
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vjquan

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The Craftsman branded ratcheting wrenches are still made in the USA.
 
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eschoendorff

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well, at least the bodies for the Cman and Armstrongs are. I would be amazed if the ratcheting mechanism was made here though. Probably more like "made" somewhere else and finished here by illegal workers.....
 
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wilbilt

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I bought a lot of Stanley/Proto/Blackhawk old stock USA wrenches.

In it was a flex-head ratcheting Proto wrench. Very strange and crude looking, but it does say "USA" on it. I have never seen another one like it, and wonder if it is a one-off or prototype.

The current Proto ratcheting wrenches look like everyone else's Taiwrench clones.
 
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DavidtheDuke

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oxycodone said:
What a shame. How about the Snap-On ones? Same taiwan wrench at a higher price?

http://buy1.snapon.com/catalog/item...group_ID=17480&store=snapon-store&dir=catalog

I don't want to pay $300 for a set, but I will if they're made here.
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I saw a picture on the back of the current SO catalogue of some plant worker assembling one of those ratcheting wrenches. I have them, they're very nice, but they don't say USA on them, but neither does my F80, which I'm pretty sure is USA. If you called them, they might tell you, who knows.
 
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Uncle Buck

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I think Gearwrenches or at least that type and the spot on clones are of nice enough quality it is really just not worth the money or effort to find the USA version. I am not fond of what I just typed but as far as I can tell it is a fact; I would usually be the first to start screaming buy used USA stuff if you cannot afford new, but in this case it is just that different!
 
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ImportTuner

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DavidtheDuke said:
I saw a picture on the back of the current SO catalogue of some plant worker assembling one of those ratcheting wrenches. I have them, they're very nice, but they don't say USA on them, but neither does my F80, which I'm pretty sure is USA. If you called them, they might tell you, who knows.
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Damm ... I just looked at the Snap On F80 ... no made in USA on it .. the F936 all had made in USA ... :(
 
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Jason_D

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I have a set (8mm-19mm) of SK Spline ratcheting wrenches. They are great & the box says made in Illinois & contrary to some beliefs, IL is still in the USA! :)
 
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dxdexter

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I think its safe to generalize that if it is NOT stamped USA, Canada, Germany , UK or any other European country then it is made in somewhere in Asia or Mexico, more than likely China. It is in the manufacturers interest to have a non third world country stamped on their product in order to increase sales (strangely enough that doesn't translate to automobiles).

If it is stamped USA then it might be made in the USA, but not always. Only part of the tool may be produced or finished in the US to qualify for the "Made in USA" tag (even then its probably made by Mexicans).

I purchased some ratcheting wrenches from GrayTools of Canada and they were stamped as such. I called the company and asked if they were in fact manufactured here because I saw similar wrenches under other names. They told me that the blanks and mechanisms were made in Taiwan and finished in Canada and they therefore considered them "made in Canada". I certainly did not and regretted the Ebay purchase, until I found out that, according to them, none of the mechanisms are produced in North American do to patent rights held offshore.

So whats a guy to do?
 
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eschoendorff

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dxdexter said:
I purchased some ratcheting wrenches from GrayTools of Canada and they were stamped as such. I called the company and asked if they were in fact manufactured here because I saw similar wrenches under other names. They told me that the blanks and mechanisms were made in Taiwan and finished in Canada and they therefore considered them "made in Canada". I certainly did not and regretted the Ebay purchase, until I found out that, according to them, none of the mechanisms are produced in North American do to patent rights held offshore.
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I bet that this is how Armstrong, Craftsman, Matco, Snap On, et al. can say that theirs are made in the USA...
 
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DavidtheDuke

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ImportTuner said:
Damm ... I just looked at the Snap On F80 ... no made in USA on it .. the F936 all had made in USA ... :(
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well the FLF80 does have USA on it, I don't know why they wouldn't make the F80 here too. Maybe they forgot to stamp them :lol_hitti
 
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oxycodone

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Thanks, all, for your input.

I just sent SK a note asking them specifically if any parts of their ratcheting wrenches are not made in the US. We shall see...

I think I'll send similar notes to Snap-On, Mac & Craftsman and see if they reply.
 
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oxycodone

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FWIW - From Snap-On's FAQ:

FAQs Answer

I would like to know if your tool products are made in the United States?

All Snap-on® branded hand tools are made in the USA. Snap-on is on record as being a strong supporter of maintaining the integrity of the "Made in USA" label when the Federal Trade Commission was considering relaxing the standards.

Updated on: Thursday, July 13, 2000
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I still sent them an email asking specifics about the internals.
 
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danski0224

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eschoendorff said:
See post #14...
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I know, but all I have to go on is whether it says "Made in USA" on it, or not.

The powers that be changed the rules, and it is almost impossible to know the true country of origin.

Given a choice, I would rather have something partially made in the USA with imported parts, than an entire finished item shipped from China.
 
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wilbilt

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oxycodone said:
Thanks, all, for your input.

I just sent SK a note asking them specifically if any parts of their ratcheting wrenches are not made in the US. We shall see...
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If you brave the maddening navigation of the S•K online catalog, you will see that many of the wrench listings have a "Made in the USA" logo on the page.

You may also notice that none of the "G-Pro Ratcheting Wrench" pages have the USA logo. I would say that is a pretty good clue that none of them are US-made.
 
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wilbilt

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Sorry for the crappy photos, but here is the oddball Proto I have. It says "USA" on it, has a fully-polished ratcheting end, but the rest of the wrench is satin finished. The ratchet mechanism looks remotely similar to a GearWrench, but it has a coarse action and is very "tight".

proto3.jpg


proto2.jpg


proto1.jpg
 
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wilbilt

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Jason_D said:
I know the Spline ratcheting wrenches are Made In USA,,,at least mine are
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That's interesting. Someone else told me that their spline wrenches did not say "USA" on them. In fact, I decided not to buy them based on this.
 
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oxycodone

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wilbilt said:
If you brave the maddening navigation of the S•K online catalog, you will see that many of the wrench listings have a "Made in the USA" logo on the page.

You may also notice that none of the "G-Pro Ratcheting Wrench" pages have the USA logo. I would say that is a pretty good clue that none of them are US-made.
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good call, I didn't even notice that. If I get a reply from them, I'll post it up.
 
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Jason_D

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wilbilt said:
That's interesting. Someone else told me that their spline wrenches did not say "USA" on them. In fact, I decided not to buy them based on this.
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The wrenches themselves don't. The box did though. I bought them soon after they came out, maybe it was a limited time thing or something.:headscrat
 
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wilbilt

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I can't imagine any manufacturer, let alone S•K, miss the opportunity to legitimately stamp an item "Made in USA".

It's a very important marketing statement.
 
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Jononon

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oxycodone said:
Thanks.

I sent an email to [email protected], but it got bounced back to me. I'll try giving them a call Tuesday and see if I can find out what the skinny is.
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I've tried this in the past. I hope you manage to get a response, but I suspect that either it won't be forthcoming, or it will be expressed in mealy mouthed corporate BS that doesn't answer the question.
 
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wrenchr

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Merkava_4 said:
51126.JPG


These wrenches run about $35 a piece; so I would hope they're made in USA by Americans earning good wages. ;)
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The forging is made here, But the ratchet mechinism is the same as the blue point. We all know where those come from.
 
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Brandon_Lutz

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oxycodone said:
Thanks, all, for your input.

I just sent SK a note asking them specifically if any parts of their ratcheting wrenches are not made in the US. We shall see...

I think I'll send similar notes to Snap-On, Mac & Craftsman and see if they reply.
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In one of my current Craftsman catalogs, it shows that all the ratcheting SKs are made in Taiwan, while the regular wrenches are made here.
 
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DavidtheDuke

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eschoendorff

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DavidtheDuke said:
http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_...me=Tools&cName=Mechanics+Tools&sName=Wrenches

If it wasn't for hte FDP on the open end on those ratcheting wrenches SO has, I would've gotten those. But they really should've provided 11, 14, 16, 18 too. Maybe the machining was too much they though.
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I have that set and they are okay, but BULKY. And not having the complete set of sizes is a pain in the *** too. But I got the GearWrench adapters for 1/4, 3/8 and 1/2 drive and they make nice low profile flex head ratchets....
 
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wrenchr

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I have the mac gearwrenchs & bluepoint + matco stubbies. But I wish I would have just bought the gearwrench brand and saved a bunch of green!!
 
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