craftool

[Justino Caballo]

I started out leather working a few months ago when i cleaned out my Dad's barn and found my Grandad's old saddle repair stuff.
the bug bit me and i began to do stuff on my saddles i had neglected to do for a while. this and my everyday job wearing gun leather got me to thinking. long story short i went to a Tandy store about two hours away and bought a few things and i must say the folks were helpful. got my basic stamp set and a swivel knife and away i went. well my dad swore up and down he had all the tools i would need but couldn't find them.....He found them a few weeks ago and gave them to me. i was so surprised the difference a decade or two will do to the quality of the tools. the numbers are the same, the shapes are similar but when i use the older tools the outcome is so different. i want to take my new tools back to tandy and donate them to the trash. i wont even mention the difference in swivel knifes.       What happened to the company? I am just curious.
                      p.s. Barry King makes one mean swivel knife and for the money i would buy six and use five for trot lines weights before i bought craftool again

[T.C. Grant]

A few years back I bought a set of used Craftools on ebay.  The tools from this bunch are all labeled Craftool USA and I agree the quality is much better than what you can buy today.  You see it in all different kinds of tools...not just the craftool.  Look at a 50 year old Craftsman screwdriver vs. what you can buy today.  I remember when I was a kid cars had chrome metal bumpers compared to the painted plastic of today. 

I do have to say that at $3.33 per Craftool when they are on sale its hard to beat.  Use until it its junk and throw it away.  That's what they want you to do so you can come back and buy another. 

[Dalton Masterson]

Planned obselescence. Planning for things to be obsolete, so that you will buy more. That is the name of the game anymore.

I have a LOT of craftool tools anymore, thanks to a good day at the anitque fair a few months ago. You are absolutely right in the quality being different. Heck even the sizes of some of the stamps are different, even being the same numbers. I really like the older ones, as the detail is usually better and a little finer. There is too much chrome plate on the new ones.

I only have a few Barry Kings, and I actually got them at my Tandy. I dont know how or why they were there, but they were.
Very nice tools.

I keep all of my tools, and once in awhile when I get a duplicate of a tool, and one is worse than the other, the worse one gets file work to become something else just a little different.
DM

[cowboy316]

i just found a duplicate craft tool  stamp i have that like that actually got 2 not that i look
the seeder s724 is that way and the figure tool f926
   Cowboy316