I had not heard that Lowe's bought Craftsman. Our local ACE chain has a good bit of
Craftsman in stock.
If Lowe's will spec the quality that Sears USED TO spec, their stuff will be as good as when
Craftsman was really good stuff. At the end Craftsman stuff was somewhat off the peak of what
they made in the 60s and still well into the 80s, even early 90s. Sure, Snap-On is a bit better, but
20% better for 3X or 5X the money??? I never could afford much of it. I have a few specialized
tools that are so superior that I had to get them. A particular 1/4" drive Snap-On socket-integrated
with the universal is thin enough and will bend enough to get the intake manifold 3/8" nuts off
of a Continental O-470 and it's brethren with four studs per individual manifold elbow to each
cylinder. Absolutely NOTHING else on this planet will get two of them off, I have tried all possible
other tools, believe me. Extremely close side clearance and very bad angles. ANY socket with a
separate universal is too long, most sockets are too thick, all box ends are too thick, no open will work.
Crows foot ALMOST will work but just won't. So, I sprung for a set of Snap-On 1/4 drive integral
socket/universal about 5 for $100 or $120, IIRC. Either that or give up. I got a Snap-On 1/4" flex
handle ratchet (marvelous tool) as a Christmas gift from my father, he had a good friend, a HS
chum of mine, who became The Snap-On Guy. Probably got a deal on it. Thanks, Dad, thanks Larry.
The procurement officer controls exactly what comes off of the production line, just that simple.
If the same guy that was specing the Kobalt stuff is specing the Craftsman stuff, the quality will
be there. Boxes will be red instead of blue, probably the same exact suppliers as the Kobalt stuff.
Different roll marking, a bit of styling change to stop the culture shock of "this doesn't LOOK like
my old Craftsman wrench!", different paint, and on it goes.
I probably turned in about 6 or 8 tools to Sears since 1966 when I started working on cars, tractors, motorcycles,
and aircraft and my Dad and Mom got my my first Craftsman tool box, filled with wrenches. I had to
buy a metric socket set, got S-K Wayne because, IIRC, Craftsman didn't yet have much metric in the late
60s, at least in our little city in Fla. Still have the S-K Wayne, although the ratchet handle, set aside in
favor of a Craftsman, got misplaced somewhere in the last 10 or 12 moves, not much missed. It was quality,
but not a fan of the crossbar selector, I prefer the small lever like Snap-On or Craftsman.
Too many folks think fondly about Craftsman for the brand name to die. They will have to murder it with
poor quality, which could happen. We will see what they do.
Bill