What an excellent post by Eric The Viking. At last, someone writing good sensible stuff about "Chiwanese quality" - AND saving himself from soft polyurethane running down his arm at the same time (I DO like that picture)! ;-)
I don't know a lot about the tool business per se, but I do know a fair bit about "technical business" in Asia and ETV writes perfect sense. Here's my take:
The Chinese are just as capable of producing good quality stuff as "we" in the West are, it's all a question of how much we as consumers are prepared to/or are able to pay - and I well remember when my Dad was still around (he was born in 1898) sometimes moaning about the "carp" being produced in some English factories with well-known names!
Obviously someone who earns his daily bread from his tools has a different viewpoint to me as a retired hobbyist, but to a large extent you do get what you pay for, whatever the origin of the goods may be - just like it always was.
And Graduate Owner makes a very good point too - if you think about what's in the typical hobbyist's (or tradesman's) workshop today as opposed to what you would have found there in, say, 1945, the difference is enormous. And to a large extent that's because manufacturing is now cheaper than it used to be - yes, often shoddy, but by no means always.
So it seems to me that we all have 3 basic choices:
A) Buy only the most expensive "best" stuff (even though "Made in Europe" is NO guarantee;
B) Buy S/H, waiting for the right item to come up, and then spend often quite a long time refurbishing it, sometimes coming to the point of the refurbish being a hobby in it's own right (nothing wrong with that IMHO, but definitely time consuming as well as satisfying);
C) Or keep an intelligent eye open and buy new what looks to be "OK" - but be prepared for the fact that you may well have to spend some time fettling to get close to what you really wanted.
I've chosen mainly option C) personally, and have ended up sometimes buying a couple of tools that were really worthless, but OTOH have now mainly got a shop full of tools which are roughly 80% of say, Festool etc capability but at a considerably lower price - much more stuff than I would have in the shop if I had chosen mainly option A) or B).
And don't forget, it doesn't always HAVE to be a machine - e.g. yes, I have a electric screwdriver (several actually!) and it's a lot easier than manual, but I COULD still use my Stanley pump screwdriver! Sanders exactly the same. Machines don't necessarily improve your capability or accuracy but often simply reduce the time and physical effort spent producing the job. That latter point IS important at my age!
In short, the choice is ours, and I have the feeling that generally speaking we all now have a much bigger choice laid before us than our fathers and grand fathers did.
And if "learning by making a mistake" is included in the buying experience once in a while, OK, it's annoying, but it IS still learning.
AES
