Man! What you all are saying is music to my ears.
All I hear is, "your tools are too expensive." We are not ready for that. It wont sell in this or that country. blah blah, blah.
There is hope. So thanks.
On the tool manufacturing side, it is a really hard thing to convince the guys paying for the product development, R&D costs, marketing, and raw materials to invest in quality and take the financial risk to develop good quality, durable tools. Mostly its a race to the bottom, due to price competition from Asia and even worse, bean counters in a purchasing department somewhere in a distribution channel who take as much profit as possible.
I can build some of the best tools in the world, but they wouldn't sell. They are much too expensive when compared to something that does nearly the same thing for a fraction of the cost.
Although, that really doesn't apply to say...... Snap-on. ?? Who I personally saw has a factory inside mainland China. Couldn't believe my eyes.
It is a balance guys, market price -vs.- product cost. We can build it, but most of you wont buy it. Those that do, probably wouldn't offset the production costs.
However, I wholeheartedly agree with Brent, quality tools are totally worth the investment.
Thanks for the post Brent.
"He who works with his hands is a laborer.
He who works with his hands & his head is a craftsman.
He who works with his hands, his head & his heart is an artist."
~St. Francis of Assisi