The new SK tools

[crazyal]

I have a few of the older American SK tools (the ones that haven't walked off) and was a bit disappointed when the brand closed down. When they came back after Ideal sold them to a Chinese company I was a bit worried that it would just be another case of a Chinese company buying an American name and then pushing low quality stuff turning the name into junk. But not everything made in China is low quality. That being said I was looking for a replacement for my Gearwrench ratcheting wrenches (also made in China). I've had a couple that the forward reverse lever jams making it difficult to switch.

Amazon is giving me a set to try out and review. The price is not cheap so I'll get to test them out. But I wanted to know if anyone else has bought any of the new SK tools? If so what do you think? Are they still a premium product? I find that I'm at that age now where I can afford higher quality, not likely to lose tools, and want tools that will just work. Returning tools to a store is a bit of a pain as nothing is that close. At the same time as my toys are much bigger now they tend to require stronger tools in more sizes to work on. Finally I wouldn't mind something nicer than Harbor Freight brands (they have some good tools) to leave to a nephew who is starting to get to the point where he actually values quality.

 

[tacticalturnip]

I didn't realize they were gone, I'm disappointed. When I was a mechanic in the Army our issued tool box was SK.

 

[BlueKnife]

Didn't realize SK had been bought out. I've generally found that, when looking at Asian made tools, Taiwanese stuff is pretty good, Chinese is junk. There are probably exceptions that I'm not aware of though. Country of manufacture isn't always the best indication of what the quality will be. Craftsman started making garbage tools in the US before they moved to making garbage tools in China.

 

[ruffdog]

I only have a couple SK tools that I picked up years ago.

 

[Langanobob]

Like BlueKnife says, Taiwan tool as a general rule are good. I avoid all Chinese made tools, regardless of brand, partly due to quality issues and partly due to politics.

Harbor Freight's house brand Icon hand tools are made in Taiwan and just about as good as it gets and for a reasonable price. I have been buying Wright made in USA wrenches but as much as I care about buying American, the price can be hard to take.

 

[toot77]

I have a fair amount of old S-K (mid 70's) which I really like for my hobby type use. Through the years I broke very few sockets and never had any trouble getting them replaced. I also have some older Craftsman sockets and I broke quite a few of those. Sears always replaced them also, but based upon the number of each i broke through the years, the old S-K were tougher imho. After S-K initially shut down, I broke my 13mm & 15mm sockets (3/8). I hung on to them and after Ideal started S-K back up and was honoring the warranty, I got them replaced with the new Ideal S-K sockets. I broke the new 15mm almost immediately and had that one replaced again. I felt that the Ideal S-K 15mm socket broke rather easily and I was disappointed. I had expected better. Since then I have been a little more careful with those two sockets than my other older ones. I have no experience with S-K after Ideal.

 

[chim]

Back in the 70's I bought a nice 1/4"-3/8"-1/2" socket set from Penney's that wasn't one of those with hundreds of pieces of junk tools tossed in to drive the count up. It looked a lot like SK, but info points towards New Britain as the manufacturer. Many of the sockets went missing over the years, and about 10 years ago TruValue or Ace had inch/metric sets for around $100 on sale so I bought one. Never broke any of the sockets and the ratchets still work fine.

I still have SK screwdrivers from the 70's that are marked "SK" and have the translucent green handles.

 

[mrmikey]

Here's a link to Project Farm testing ratchets, SK's one of them:

 

[5030]

It's SK Wayne btw. I do Icon now. Lifetime guarantee and easy to return to get replaced.

 

[5030]

Not to be political but if DJT imposes his proposed tariff's, HF tools will increase in price substantially and so will all the other import tools.