I was at my local Home Depot yesterday, picking up a couple of new tools and scoping out the holiday sales displays, when I stopped by the Crescent adjustable wrenches.
There was a 6″ and 10″ combo pack, and what caught my attention was the USA printed on the handles. Hmm, that must be NOS (new old stock), I thought.
So I checked the 8″ wrench. Made in USA.
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Okay, maybe it was a fluke and that wrench was also from older inventory. So I checked some of the other wrenches nearby. Made in USA, USA, USA, China. The 10″ wrench was made in China. But, after rifling through, I saw that there were USA-made ones on the peg behind the 2 made-in-China ones.
Why is this important enough to post about? Well, here’s a bit of history:
Prior to Jan 2012: Crescent-branded adjustable wrenches were made in USA and they were inexpensive. They weren’t that great, but they were still decently built.
Jan 2012: New made-in-China crescent adjustable wrenches appeared in stores. Crescent maintained USA production for military and industrial supply channels, but retail market Crescent wrenches were to be made in China.
I bought one of the new wrenches and there were very subtle differences in their designs. It really wasn’t bad for an imported wrench.
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Nov 2013: I spotted made-in-USA Crescent wrenches at the local Home Depot. Lots of them. A quick shake-test shows that these wrenches rattle a lot less than older USA-made ones. In general, less rattling reflects a greater quality adjustable wrench.
I bought one of the 8-inch wrenches, and so if I can dig up an older ~2011 USA Crescent adjustable wrench, I’ll do a comparison. For now, my initial assessment is that the new wrenches are decent, and at least good enough for the money. They cost more than the older USA-made wrenches, but not any more than recent China-made ones.
The model numbers are different – the USA-made 8-inch wrench is AC18CVSML, and the China-made 8-inch one is AC28CVS.
In these images, a 10-inch wrench is on the left, and 8-inch on the right. Afterwards I noticed there were made-in-China 8-inch wrenches way back behind a couple of USA-made ones, but disturbing the display to reach for them would not have made the comparison any clearer. Plus, my left arm was already busy holding a couple of things.
It is perhaps important to mention that this was all at the same Northeast Home Depot location.
Why is this significant? Well, it’s not, at least in the grand scheme of things. But I figured this was something interesting to report about. It interests me, and I know it will interest some of you. Plus, I want all of the product managers and wholesale tool buyers out there to know that yes, some consumers DO take notice when products’ manufacturing origins change.
Apex Tool Group has outsourced a lot of tools in recent years, including most if not all of the wrenches, ratchets, and sockets they make for Craftsman. It’s nice to see a step in the reverse direction every now and then.
Joshua Latham
Nice, I have a China set and they work fine, but I will pick up some USA made ones. Note to self buy cardboard backed packaging.
Chris Pyfer
It would be interesting to see the yearly profit gain/loss numbers since the introduction of the overseas production. Every purchase we make helps determine where products are made. Our endorsement is a vote that we make with our wallets. One example of a return to domestic production like this one is at least promising.
Jerry
Good to hear. For a while, I was beginning to think that only HJE had USA made adjustable wrenches.
Also, I don’t know who made them for Craftsman, but I have a couple older ones ( like 25+ years old) that are still amongst the tightest and most rattle free ones I own.
tool guy
The Craftsman adjustables made prior to Stanley acquiring them were made by Western Forge, in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Stanley took all remaining production overseas, then began building a plant in Texas, which is to open later this year. They were in the market to buy Western Forge, but decided not too, so that plant will shut down when all remaining orders are filled, sometime in May, 2020.
Joe
somewhat off topic, but not much considering the gist of the post.
Speaking of COO (of which there are a few zealots here), did anyone get a Moto X just because it is made in the US?
Stan
I am thinking of buying that phone not only to support American jobs, but also because of some of the features.
I am one of the very small minority of people that care about coo and American jobs. You’d be surprised how caring about others and information that seem meaningless to most actually is worth the challenge, at least in my in opinion.
Glad to see Bain Capital actually hasn’t completely ruined Apex yet.
Joe
I ask because I am curious, I am going to get one, and that was definitely a factor in my decision.
But yes, its also because I like the phone, I wouldn’t get it if it was a crap phone.
Stuart
I passed on the Moto-X and bought a Motorola Droid Maxx.
Here are my thoughts about the Moto-X: http://gearguyd.com/thoughts-about-the-motorola-moto-x-being-made-in-the-usa/
Motorola was set to spend far more money marketing and advertising the new assembled-in-USA phone than the $4 more per phone it costs to assemble it here.
Joe
curse my work firewall!! I cant get to gearguyd because it thinks its “games” (I knew there was a reason I didn’t go there regularly).
I will check it out from home, thanks!
Stuart
It’s not updated regularly, so you’re not mixing much.
Noah
Excellent news!
Side note: almost every USA adjustable Epstein’s sells is made by Western Forge, which is now a subsidiary of Ideal.
Brian14
Interesting. Someone should go back periodically and see if they continue to restock with US made ones, if that is the case.
Derek
Why don’t they display this proudly on the front of the package? This tells me that this is taking place by chance. Is USA marked on the tool?
joe
I don’t really quite understand the “USA made” hype. That hype only seems to come from old people in my honest opinion.
I honestly just took apart a USA made electric tool and I am not amazed on the build nor the electronics ’cause the tool have some foreign made items.
In those pictures, the only difference by eye I can tell is in the better casting..other than that…the metals my be really closed at their chemical forged hardening.
Have there been actual tests between made in the USA vs china products?
Don’t get me started on the American car like ford…just a stupid example on the ford truck f150 shock absorbers for the year 2003…you know what I mean to change the back ones..lol
joe
What I basically mean is that it is not the reason the tool is sloppy made rather the price the chief manufacturer is willing to pay to make the tool…i’m pretty sure the USA gets tools from china because they pay very little for them and make a profit for selling them in the USA.
MAC and Snap-On tools have items made from china but what differentiates them from the rest is life time warranty. I don’t know if sears still does this…but I knew they did this and I would take worn sears tools to get replaced back in the days…i have one plat screw driver that I have replaced with sears like four time…who cares if it’s made in china if I can just replace it…
Joe
You’re going to start a flame war here 😉
Its a choice, some people care about supporting things being made in the US, some just want the cheapest widget they can get. Its obvious which way the majority of American consumers go (or at least, how companies THINK they will).
I could point you to cases where bringing it back to the US actually made it cheaper (GE water heaters) because people actually THOUGHT about how it was being built, instead of just contracting it out.
David
A lot of people care, and not just “old people”. I’m in my thirties and I care. Buy the China junk if you’re okay with it , but there’s no point scoffing at people that do their homework and are willing to go out of their way and pay a little extra to support jobs and companies producing goods in their home country.
Vincent Rauckhorst
You should here what your talking about, at least the old people know the history of China and how they are still trying to destroy the United States Of America. They send us all the junk no one else once and by the way there have been some test on metal and other things such as plastic and 99 % of it very on its make up the material are all over the map nothing is a standard. Simple proof, you do the test. By some of china origin and something of American origin not something with us and global parts but American, true American. Keep this in mind it’s not the people of china the the folks who control everything. The greed that is in are mists. We put are selves out by selling out to everyone else and is it not ironic not to the highest bidder but the lost and where has that put us, almost out of business. So take another look at how you look at things. The decisions we affect are families and are future as a nation.
Allen
It is unsustainable, this trade deficit, very short sighted. The quality could be twice as high and price half as much and I wouldn’t buy Chinese. Mexico, yes, Europe, yes, almost anywhere else, yes.
We will be a nation of bond traders, janitors and fast food employees. Good paying middle class jobs are a must for a nation to thrive.
Kevin
well put, the middle class is the beef in the burger
Allen
I should hasten to add that janitorial and fast food work are honorable pursuits. Bond trader, not so much.
Patriot
“USA made HYPE” who are you, a communist? OF COURSE I buy USA-made tools every time I can. OF COURSE I rifle though the stacks and see if there’s any New-Old Stock out there. Every purchase you make from China is taking money out of American pockets. I BUY AMERICAN BECAUSE I AM AN AMERICAN!! Holy crap, you must shop at Wal-Mart too, you know, “because it’s cheap!” This kind of attitude is what is wrong with America. Sure, sell your soul to the Chinese. Or anyone else. We have a mantra: “ANYWHERE but China” buy your supplies made ANYWHERE but China! Are you not a Patriot? geesh
SteveR
Stuart–Have you sent an e-mail or talked with any of Crescent’s marketing people about this blockbuster news? They’re re-routing jobs BACK into this country, and we don’t know why; that might be the real story. Did the state/city these tools are now made in offer them tax and other incentives to bring the production facility to their fair city? Are the employees that work in that facility unionized, or was no union activity a condition to returning the jobs to the U.S.? Lowered hourly wages, no health care and lack of union “interference” on the production floor might still look good to someone who needs a job.
Stuart
No, not yet. I also didn’t talk to them about why production was shifted from USA to China previously. This type of decision isn’t typically made by the people I communicate with, and even if they’re in-the-know, it is not not something that are usually free to discuss.
Jason
Dewalt is bringing a bunch of manufacturing back to the USA for final assembly including power tools and cordless power tools. Final assembly on cordless tools is a big one they haven’t been made in great numbers in the USA for awhile now. So they will wear a made in the usa label with globally sourced components. The era really cheap labor in China is slowly disappearing, and dealing the cost and travel times required to ship the items it’s starting to look like making tools in the USA is a valid solid economic option now.
Toolfreak
A step in the right direction, to be sure.
Craftsman should be turning this corner sometime next year, if Sears wants to stay in business at least. They think their sales numbers are up because their China-made tools are selling like hotcakes, but they don’t realize sales are only good because people are buying all that’s left of the old USA-made stock. A crash in sales usually gets a business to wake up and take notice, if the people behind it are actually interested in making money and keeping their jobs.
Talking about steel tools and tech stuff like phones is two different things. Good quality steel has always been a US hallmark. The metal used for most wrenches/sockets/ratchets made abroad comes from US-sourced steel that was melted down. Tech is the future, to be sure, but people confuse the issue on quality when they gloss over the engineering and manufacturing, as if all things are equal except the cost. Sometimes things are just made better in certain places because of the materials and processes used, and the experience of the people who have been doing it for a long time.
Joe
Apply snark filter as required… 🙂
Or the lack or regulations over the usage of potentially hazardous chemicals and processes (or the disposal of wastes from such). Or the refusal of the Chinese to export some rare metals in the free market. Yes, I am generalizing, but I would be shocked if it wasn’t true.
JameyB
Interesting to hear of USA made Crescent wrenches on the shelves at HD. Recently checked my local HD and they are all imported. Same for Lowes except I saw one USA made 12 inch with the old style “Crescent” font, which I quickly grabbed of course. I noticed that the imported version is slightly lighter in weight with a little more rattle and the finish is smoother and more polished.
jjhte
looks like the usa and china same quality.
Jeff
Well, here I go I guess,…I see some of the comments that seem to pretty much say that there is no real difference, but I beg to differ a bit. The steel tools and electric ones that I have acquired in the last ten years have had much lighter wiring and softer steel than what I have had in USA tools prior to that. So I would rather pay more for a tool of quality than buy or trade out under a warranty for one that I only have to deal with once.
The other part of the problem is: It seems that we all want good paying jobs and to be able at the same time to be able to purchase cheaply textiles (clothing) and other things, yet we are outsourcing these products to foreign interests. We seem to think that right out of high school, we are entitled to 6 figure incomes to achieve this. Yet, we also seem think that we should all be high tech employees or executives. Yet also unemployment is high (let’s see,…where did all the jobs go and why?,…) due to a whole lot of jobs that just left the USA for that reason. We should insist that these manufacturing facilities come back for those very jobs and realize what it has cost this country by doing this. We don’t make glass, steel or much of any thing any more, all we seem to sell is B.S.. Most of all the automobiles are made up of foreign parts and if not that, assembled in another country.
I get really frustrated when I get a tool that sort of just melts when I put a bit of muscle on it. And yeah, I’m one of the “OLD Farts”.
J
Look at the big picture. We are a nation of 300+ million people. China has almost four times as many people, India has more than three times. That’s just those two. Trade is global and that won’t stop even if we back out. We are an economic powerhouse which fuels our standard of living and things like our military. The engine of that powerhouse is what we sell over seas not what we sell to each other, so backing off the world stage will only cause our standard of living to drop like a rock in an abandoned quarry. We have no choice but to compete with the rest of the world and wrenches are not going to be where we will do best. If you want a better wrench there are company’s that sell them, in the mean time Crescent and the rest of our mulitnationals cannot afford to be boutique shops.
Todd
I have a small company that sells Draft Beer Equipment. We try to sell as many items as possible that are made in the USA. This is because we find they are higher quality and often very close in manufacturing cost (sometimes less when you factor in shipping and wait time). I won’t buy “American Brand” tools that have their stuff made in China. I will buy Crescent again now! When they were made over seas I just bought the cheaper no brand or house brand adjustable wrenches. If I am going to buy a Chinese wrench, why buy a brand. I want my American brand tools to be made in America!
John
I would like to know about a co. that made crescent wrenches with the letters B&C
Betty
Hi John, I know this is old but I just came across it. You may be referring to a Bemis & Call wrench.
Charles Ransom
This 12 inch present wrench made in U.S.A. Says 12 in Crescent*U.S.A,| On one side and The Original Since 1907 ¡ on the other. Arrow pointing up on one side pointing down on the other
Micheal Patterson
When crescent was a cresent I would buy it now it was a cresent now it’s not so no ,I won’t buy it no more ,because I I dont have a job to pay for it .it was cheaper to to have someone else to do my job. So in sense maybe someone else can do your job cheaper and you can’t afford to pay them for doing your job too. When eventually your products no longer sell to people who dont have jobs to pay for it will eventually steal it,and not pay for it or just remember not to help you out when you get left out like you left them out it’s a small world when it comes to who’s who and where were you when I knew about you. This next generation will remember what you did to their jobs and they will make sure that you cant’ afford to pay them for the things they do for you. Food! It’s the only commodity left for Americans to do. Everything else has been been sold out to the cheapest bidder. Who owns the farm now! One million dollars for a gallon of milk ,one billion dollars for some juice, One Trillion for a bowl o f rice. No money, No job,No Car,No Castle .No .problem I’ll sell it to someone other than you! Remember what you do will come back times two!