Black and Decker Purchases the Craftsman Brand

[Desert185]

Sears and Roebuck...Sears...and now selling an iconic American tool brand.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/...rump/96192526/

[Buck1032]

Sears has let the Craftsman tool line decline rapidly in the past 20 years. I wonder of Black and Decker will bring back the quality and pride of the Craftsman tool line.

[Kaufmanrider]

Originally Posted by Buck1032

Sears has let the Craftsman tool line decline rapidly in the past 20 years. I wonder of Black and Decker will bring back the quality and pride of the Craftsman tool line.

Looks like they are moving in the right direction by bringing production back to the US.

[Pull Toy]

Beginning of the END for Sears & Roebuck RIP...

[66joej]

Rumour has it that Sears in Canada will be closing stores here. Could a complete shutdown be far behind? We live in a small town and now they charge shipping to have mechandise shipped to the catolog office. Our version of a Sears store. Unheard of until last year.

[BirchyBoy]

Originally Posted by Buck1032

Sears has let the Craftsman tool line decline rapidly in the past 20 years. I wonder of Black and Decker will bring back the quality and pride of the Craftsman tool line.

Sad to say, but quality never really enters my mind when I see Black & Decker.

[Buck1032]

Originally Posted by BirchyBoy

Sad to say, but quality never really enters my mind when I see Black & Decker.

That pretty much has been my opinion of 90% of Black and Decker goods.

[CaptnJohn]

Originally Posted by Buck1032

That pretty much has been my opinion of 90% of Black and Decker goods.

B&D was never meant to be a tool that lasted forever. The cost point dictated a slightly lesser quality. I always preferred Hilti and even Dewalt (a B&D product).

[hankpage]

Many of electrical tools with the Craftsman name have been made by B&D for a while now. Most parts were interchangeable, just different colors.

Same as the Kenmore brand of appliances, they are clones of whoever gave the quality for the best price at that time. JM2¢, Hank

[xrated]

I was in our local Sears store back in December, and I realize that it was the Christmas season and things are somewhat picked over because of the Holiday sales, but it honestly looked like a "Store closing" was taking place and they were in the final few weeks. A sad day in comparison to what I remember at Sears stores when growing up. And yes, the quality of tools coming from Sears over the years have been on a steady decline to the point that I haven't bought tools from there for years and years.

[bsmith0404]

The rumor I've heard is that Sears is closing approximately 200 stores this year. With B&D you get what you pay for, but knowing how many of these buyouts go, smart money will mean that they use the Craftsman Brand to give them the 3 levels of power tools, B&D, Craftsman, DeWalt and keep the hand tool line exactly where it is, a decent hand tools you can buy in a store at a decent price vs a truck at rape prices. They're still better than Stanley.

My opinion on Craftsman vs Snap-On and similar: Snap-On had an edge in the past on certain things like high tooth number ratchets. They were great in a tight spot where a craftsman ratchet MIGHT get one click, a snap-on ratchet could get 3, so you got the advantage of the full movement vs losing most of the movement in slop/slack. Other brands now have the high tooth number ratchets as well. I've also rounded nuts off with a craftsman socket that I was able to get lose by switching to a snap-on, but you pay a very steep price for that. Since I don't make a living with my tools anymore, I'm not paying that price. I don't think Craftsman is as good today as it was in the past, but their 6 point sockets are still decent for the price, they can throw the 12 points in the trash. I'm slowly switching to Irwin Tools and so far have been very pleased with the quality. I won't be buying any new craftsman tools, but I'm happy that the craftsman name will continue is so I can exchange them for free when they break.

[Lee]

I wonder if the new owner of the Craftsman name will honor the life time warranty of the already sold Craftsman hand tools.

I have exclusively bought Craftsman over the past 30 years just for the warranty. Sure would hate to loose this.

[CaptnJohn]

Craftsman socket sets and wrenches from the '70s are still going strong. Sometime in the '80s I bought a Contractor Series compound miter/slider saw. It worked great for 30 years and still works but the motor needs rewound. I bought the Dewalt 12" compound slider double bevel instead.... still need to get that motor rewound.

[TLB]

Originally Posted by Buck1032

Sears has let the Craftsman tool line decline rapidly in the past 20 years.

Went to the local Sear's to replace a socket a while back, didn't have what I wanted and they didn't know when they were getting any in.

[the sodfather]

For the last few years, my only business at Sears has been for tools. Mainly for work tools. I think everything is made in China now but they still honor the warranty. The bad thing is is that all the warranty stuffl I take in is newer stuff. The "old" stuff seems to last. I have an old tap and die set that I bought years ago. Made in the USA. It's fantastic. Had a few offers wanting to buy it. Nah, I'll keep it!

[CaptnJohn]

Originally Posted by the sodfather

For the last few years, my only business at Sears has been for tools. Mainly for work tools. I think everything is made in China now but they still honor the warranty. The bad thing is is that all the warranty stuffl I take in is newer stuff. The "old" stuff seems to last. I have an old tap and die set that I bought years ago. Made in the USA. It's fantastic. Had a few offers wanting to buy it. Nah, I'll keep it!

Had a contractor work at the house 2 years ago. He still calls to ask if the table saw (1980s) is for sale yet.

[Desert185]

If you think about it, the lowering of standards reflects much of society's values.

Reminds me of a speech on "Widening the Plate" given by John Scolinos, a retired college coach. Google it.

[66joej]

Originally Posted by Desert185

If you think about it, the lowering of standards reflects much of society's values.

Reminds me of a speech on "Widening the Plate" given by John Scolinos, a retired college coach. Google it.

Read that speech a year or 2 ago and it makes a lot of sense. I guess I'm just too old to accept some of the crap we have put up with these days.

[Dhuhn]

Ever since Kmart bought Sears they have been going down hill since. It like they threw there hands up and gave up.

[the sodfather]

Honestly, we have a couple small B&D cordless vacuums and really like them. One in the camper and one in the house.