Hackaday: A lot of people make the argument that you can’t go wrong buying a tool made in USA, Germany, Japan, Switzerland, etc. They swear that any Chinese tool will be garbage and it’s not worth purchasing them. Now, any discerning mind will say, “Wait a minute, why? China has a huge economy, experienced people, and the ability to use all the scary chemicals that make the best steel. Why would their tools be any better or worse than ours?” It’s a very valid argument. There are lots of Chinese tools that are the best in the world. Most of what we see in our stores are not. So what is the difference. Why does a country who can make the best tools not make the best tools? Surely it isn’t purely cost cutting. Is it cultural? The opinion I wish to put forth is that it’s a matter of design intent communication.
4 comments:
I like this argument because it does a good job at making the argument to be an informed consumer. The differences between tools may be a result of where they were made, but unless you know why making it there can decrease it’s quality then it’s kind of a useless, or at least a less useful set of metrics to compare tools by. Unfortunately, as the article pointed out, price is often times a fairly good indicator. I’ve heard from certain professors around the university that that has something to do with the research and development that goes into the product and the setting up factories for producing the product right, and it seems that in essence that that’s what this article claims. Frankly, you have to know why you’re buying the tool to make that decision. Let’s say you’re an electrician, and you are deciding to buy a meter. Now, you could buy some cheap radio shack meter, or you could invest in a nice fluke meter at a significantly larger price. Now, if you plan to use that meter often enough for the next several years, the fluke meter is clearly a better option, because it save you from potentially needing to replace your meter. Same goes with any other tool. If you want to buy a screwgun, then you have to ask yourself what kind of life you want out of that screwgun, and you need to buy a product that could realistically live up to that set of expectations.
While I appreciate the varied comparisons between the quality of tools, the overall theme of this article was that you can never really tell what kind of product you're going to get when you buy something made internationally. The article made this assumption for us, it spoke continually about the lower-quality differences in crescent wrenches, yet gave an example of tools that are manufactured in China that do display a higher level of quality. I think that's the main point at hand. You can buy things from China, they could be okay or they could be trash. It's the same thing we see in rigging hardware, where hardware made in china that may look very similar but isn't rated at all to hold any weight. Not to mention the overarching problem of dangerous manufacturing processes used in China that are under regulated and bring up ethical issues.
I really liked how this article took a different approach to the made in America argument by not using the “buy made in America stuff because its made here and so definitely the best” style of argument. Instead they argued more for being an informed consumer and buying products that were made where they were designed. To me that made this article more of an argument for not buying something if you have no way of handling a version of it first, or if you do being very careful that you know what you’re getting. There are plenty of well made things that come from other countries and there are plenty of cheaply made poor quality things as well. Really the only way to tell (if you don’t have prior experience with the company) is either trusting the reviews of others or ideally finding a way to try what ever it is your buying for your self before you buy it.
I am a big believer in buying quality tools. When I buy a tool, I want to know that it is going to do the job it is designed to do, last a reasonable amount of time and know that what I’m buying is worth the price. If I buy a hammer for $200 and it breaks the first time I use it, I’m going to question the quality of the hammer. On the other end, if I buy $2 hammer and it breaks, I knew what I was getting. When looking at tools, there is such a variety in cost, quality, and brand, it can be intimidating, especially when looking for basic hand tools. In part, I think that one has to look at the intent – a homeowner looking for a hammer to hang pictures or a contracting looking to invest in a tool to last for decades. Has the quality of manufacturing in the US gone down? I don’t know. What I do know is what I want in a tool and how much I want to spend. A part of this is also what kind of guarantee comes with the tool. Back to the $200 hammer. If it breaks the first time I use it, what does it matter if I can get it replaced for free if it isn’t a quality product?
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