Craftsman Tools' Future

[houdini]

Harbor freight has lifetime warranty on hand tools as well and they do honor it.

[G7PSK]

Bahco  tools are another brand that I rate very highly as do many others, but the best socket set I have must be an ETC branded one I bought this in about 1972 or 3 in that time it has been abused as well as used fairly early on I split one socket trying to undo a wheel nut on a 7 ton truck, I put a 7 foot length of scaffold tube on the T bar and bounced the store that sold me the set replaced the socket free of charge and nothing else has broken since, not bad for a cheap Japanese socket set. Another brand that seems to have disappeared is Bedford tools I have a number of their spanners and cold chisels dating back to the 1960's in some cases. My favourite brand name has to be King Dick I only have two spanners made by them one an adjustable and the other a podger.

[saturation]

I'd spoken to contractors who buy tools at HF for a single job, then return them after the contract, if they are not busy.  The problem is if they are busy, they don't have the time to go back and forth, and a tool breaking on the job before completion cost them more in the time it takes to drive to HF and replacing the tool, even for free.

Overall, they get tools they know gets the job done right because their reputation of good work is at stake, and the contract time pressure to complete a task keeps them from using cheaper tools of unknown quality.  The good tools are part of their toolbox, and thus are ready to be used, and more importantly, trusted to be used, on demand.

So despite the lifetime warranty, its not as often used as it appears at least by professional contractors.

Harbor freight has lifetime warranty on hand tools as well and they do honor it.