Sold American!

[davischevy]

I don't know how many of you are old enough to remember the Lucky Strike cigarette commercial where the auctioneer ended his chant with "Sold American!"

I am a "Buy American" kind of guy. I figure we are in this together, and when I'm buying goods I'm going to support a fellow American if I can.

This ramble was started by ITTR's SK ratchet thread. I started wondering how many wrenches and hand tools were still manufactured in the USA.

I wasn't aware that SK Tools as we know it filed bankruptcy, but were bought up by a bigger company and their quality is pretty much where it was in their heyday.

I actually found several brands still made in the USA, so I can still buy wrenches.

[Advanced Design]

What brands are made in USA?

I bought a Carhart coat yesterday and is was labeled made in USA.

[pritch]

Originally Posted by Advanced Design

What brands are made in USA?

I bought a Carhart coat yesterday and is was labeled made in USA.

Musta been NOS. All the ones I was looking at said Viet Nam. They was the kids sizes, though, maybe those are different.

I try to buy American when I can, try to shop local when I can. It gets harder and harder, though.

[davischevy]

Armstrong – Part of the Apex Tool Group
Proto – Part of Stanley Black & Decker
SK*Hand Tool – Now part of Ideal Industries
Williams – Part of Snap-on Industrial Group
Wright – An independent manufacturer
Snap On
Channellock (not all)
Craftsman (not all)
Klein Tools (not all)
Wilde Tool

These are the ones that make wrenches. I'm sure I missed somebody.

[davischevy]

Pritch, I too believe in shop local, but, yes it gets harder and harder.

I have noticed you, like us, travel some to job locations.

I will never figure out why the locals will hire a contractor from out of town, then we have to travel to work in another town. A lot of our people spend the week away from home.

A couple years ago the local school hired a construction manager from down south, and within a week one of the teachers called wanting us to donate goods and labor for a school project. DUH.

Only about 20% of our sales come from within the county. Of course the other 80% is under ground utilities and treatment plants, so we would have to travel anyway.

Oh well, I'm happy.

[Killer Bee]

I smoked a few cartons of lucky strike when supplies were short in desert storm

as for good 'ol American tools, Snap-on!

https://youtu.be/J4ZM7LwUPJc

https://youtu.be/JngCHSzv3r4

https://youtu.be/iwLYdlcwr1A

[special-K]

It has gotten harder and harder to buy American every year since I was born. It has gone from being able to buy nothing imported to taking great effort to find a USA made product. And USA made now could mean by a foreign owner company. I am American labor, therefore I feel an instinct to protect that. I have been buying American my whole adult life, since the early '70s. I remember when it became hard to buy a camera or stereo that wasn't made in Japan and it appeared Japan made was the only choice. Back then you bought something from another country to get what they were known for, like a Swiss watch or Italian floor tiles, or Sake from Japan

A few at the top have gotten multiple times richer by selling us out by moving production abroad. As cheaply as things can be produced in China we should be paying prices from the '60s. We still have inflation as bad as ever. Companies make such a larger margin that they can go buy up competition just to shut them down...all in partnership with our bailed out banks.

[Popcorn W]

I had a neighbor years ago who was in Pearl Harbor when the Japanese attacked.
While attending his funeral, his daughter told me about how her and her husband thought about buying a Japanese car and had mentioned it to her dad. He told her: "That's fine. I hear they're good cars. But when you visit me, do not park it in my driveway."

Me personally, I've never had a non-American made car titled in my name except for one VW bug when I was a kid.
I'm not real political but I just don't understand how we got to this point. Almost everything we buy now days is manufactured in a Communist country that we have bad relations with. Do we even have an embassy in China?

[A1971Blazer]

Originally Posted by Popcorn W

I had a neighbor years ago who was in Pearl Harbor when the Japanese attacked.
While attending his funeral, his daughter told me about how her and her husband thought about buying a Japanese car and had mentioned it to her dad. He told her: "That's fine. I hear they're good cars. But when you visit me, do not park it in my driveway."

Me personally, I've never had a non-American made car titled in my name except for one VW bug when I was a kid.
I'm not real political but I just don't understand how we got to this point. Almost everything we buy now days is manufactured in a Communist country that we have bad relations with. Do we even have an embassy in China?

My uncle was in the US Navy in WWII....his ship was hit by a Japanese Kamikaze and the crew had to abandon ship....he would never buy ANYTHING made in Japan....

[Coley]

There are some very good points here...and it is tough to 'buy locally' sometimes despite our traditional 'leanings'....and the 'levelling point' for most people's choices usually lies (quietly) in the price and what we feel we can afford.
The best example on this website it the very high rate of guys buying and pushing the idea of 'crate engines'...most of which are outsourced and built in Mexico, which is why they are so economical.
The idea of having an engine built (or rebuilt) locally instead is not very popular...mostly because it will be more expensive....but at the end of the day, there is a reason for that... and the (American or Canadian) guy building the motor would naturally support....particularly if it was you or me and our living and pay check at stake.
One the vehicle choice thing...competition is good for quality, even if its international competition.

Interesting discussion....

all good
Coley

[leddzepp]

So do I buy junk from China, and support the American company that outsourced to them...or do I buy quality stuff from Japan and support the Japanese company

[davischevy]

Originally Posted by leddzepp

So do I buy junk from China, and support the American company that outsourced to them...or do I buy quality stuff from Japan and support the Japanese company

That is the question.

With items I buy on a regular basis I try to weigh the facts. I am no more fond of American companies that sold the workers out than I am of buying from a communist country.

Toyota is the perfect argument to my OP. A foreign company (neg), has plants in the USA (+), Pays workers well (+), builds a quality product (+). Even thought the profits go to Japan the wages stay here. I can tell you from experience the wages are a lot more than the profits. I respect that more than a US company outsourcing the labor, then deferring the profits offshore to avoid taxes.

This is getting more complicated than I intended.

[In The Ten Ring]

During the last election, I went to see my old welding instructor and I noticed a new band saw. He told me how he had decided to only buy American because of a certain candidate's position....


I think it's a good idea to buy local first and national (American) if possible. The problem is cost....so many American companies cannot compete with the indentured servant labor overseas.....also once an American company gets big enough, it usually moves production and customer service abroad for the same reason of cost.

[davischevy]

The indentured servant will eventually become more savvy and demand higher wages.

But if people smarter than me are correct, computers and 3d printers are going to displace so many workers there won't be enough jobs.

Of course right now there are not enough workers. We need more people every day.

[Coley]

"..The indentured servant will eventually become more savvy and demand higher wages."

Very good point....

I work in engineering and I was in China this past summer and their middle class is booming...particularly anyone who is reasonably educated....such as engineers, tekkies, management, etc.
Its not uncommon for this group to see double digit raises every year due to their economy.
The group that is not getting this advantage is the uneducated 'labor' group...at least not yet, but the push for better wages etc is constant there.
All of this means that their prices go up every year relative to anything that is outsourced there....so the clock is ticking.
So apparently 'paradise found....is also paradise lost' when it comes to cheap labor that eventually brings wealth to those who create it.

Coley

[davischevy]

My uncle works in aerospace. He spent a lot of time In China over the last ten years.

I asked him this summer about the China project and he said they had aborted the whole thing, because the quality VS cost didn't compute for them.

A bit of trivia that might surprise you about us hillbillys. Arkansas' #1 export is aerospace.

[Coley]

"...A bit of trivia that might surprise you about us hillbillys. Arkansas' #1 export is aerospace"

doesn't surprise me at all....that said, I think Canada's number one export are professional hockey players, lol.

[jeffahart]

Originally Posted by leddzepp

So do I buy junk from China, and support the American company that outsourced to them...or do I buy quality stuff from Japan and support the Japanese company

When it comes to something like the steel in a U-joint.... Japan hands down! When I was younger, I never thought there would be a point in my life I would be asking for Japanese steel. That time came a decade ago. Japanese steel over Chinese for sure... some of the Chinese stuff is good, but you just cannot trust where it came from. I feel the there is more consistency in the Japanese steel.

I feel like the problem now is that... they have applied the everything is disposable to automitive replacement parts! Bummer!

[Popcorn W]

Originally Posted by davischevy

Toyota is the perfect argument to my OP. A foreign company (neg), has plants in the USA (+), Pays workers well (+), builds a quality product (+). Even thought the profits go to Japan the wages stay here.

Toyota plants in the US always seems to come up in these discussions. They're creating American jobs.
Consider this:
I don't know how many man-hours it takes to build a new car. Let's assume for the sake of argument it's 1,000.
If you had bought a Chevy instead of a Toyota, that's a UAW job that would have gone to a GM employee for 1,000 hours instead of him working at Toyota, and the profits would have gone to Detroit instead of Tokyo.

[CG]

I'm going to buy my grandson his first tool set this year. He's only five, there is no way I'm going to spend big bucks on his first set. Ill probably pick up a small Craftsman set.

If he turns in to a wrencher Ill give him gifts of nicer tools as he grows older and stay American made.

[special-K]

Originally Posted by Coley

"...A bit of trivia that might surprise you about us hillbillys. Arkansas' #1 export is aerospace"

Is that what y'all call chickens?

[davischevy]

Agriculture being our largest industry, chickens are a big part of that.

Cotton is no longer king. Arkansas produces about half the rice in the united states.

[leddzepp]

Originally Posted by Popcorn W

Toyota plants in the US always seems to come up in these discussions. They're creating American jobs.
Consider this:
I don't know how many man-hours it takes to build a new car. Let's assume for the sake of argument it's 1,000.
If you had bought a Chevy instead of a Toyota, that's a UAW job that would have gone to a GM employee for 1,000 hours instead of him working at Toyota, and the profits would have gone to Detroit instead of Tokyo.

If you buy a Chevy instead of a Toyota, think of the $1000’s more in maintenance and replacing parts in the years that follow. I own both...a 2001 Yukon XL and a 2003 4Runner.

I have replaced every component on the Yukon, some twice, even three times (fuel pump comes to mind), AC pump, intake gaskets, radiator, surge tank, alternator, water pump, countless ABS sensor problems (finally just pulled the plug on it), O2 sensors, the “air ride” compressor gave out ages ago, has an oil leak, headliner is falling down, etc...

I have replaced the gas cap on the 4Runner because the seal rotted out after 12 years and caused a vacuum leak.

It’s sad, but there is no comparison.

[CG]

The Toyotas do seem to run pretty well. 322K on my Toyota pick up. Then went to the Scion XB 314K .. I'm 75K into my 2015 XB, no major problems with any of em.

I got around 200K on my Astro van before it had a trans problem. I think my wife's Trailblazer was doing fine also around 200K when it went to one of the sons and she got a Honda CRV.

She has had five new cars since we've been together (all US except for the latest) and the only one that sucked, well we liked it just fine until the trans went out, was her Ford Escape. That trans was a killer.

['63GENIII]

Originally Posted by jeffahart

When it comes to something like the steel in a U-joint.... Japan hands down! When I was younger, I never thought there would be a point in my life I would be asking for Japanese steel. That time came a decade ago. Japanese steel over Chinese for sure... some of the Chinese stuff is good, but you just cannot trust where it came from. I feel the there is more consistency in the Japanese steel.

I feel like the problem now is that... they have applied the everything is disposable to automitive replacement parts! Bummer!

Exactly..

When building the front 44 on the '63, I bought Timken inner and outer wheel bearings only to find... made in China. I was floored. I returned those and used the KOYO bearings stamped Japan. They still looked good and my local indy parts guys swore up and down by them over the Frienemy bearings. Very sad day to see that Timken had broke down to building over there. Trust gone.

Work clothes.

Used to be a Carhart guy all the way. Still have a few jackets and pairs of pants made here. My newer work clothes are Bens. Boot are a big one. Lotsa guys at work like the Timberlands or Cats BC they're cheap. Ive worn Whites, Wesco and now onto Chippewa Super Loggers. Yes they're double + what the Cats and TL boots cost but they last 2 if not 3 times as long as the cheaper boots, wear and protect my feet better and are way more comfortable in all seasons.

It has gotten tougher to find USA on the label anymore.