Endangered Chinese tool makers???

[Rick Potter]

All the Chinese tool threads lately have reminded me of how manufacturing has changed since WWII. I remember when junk tools were from Japan, then quality improved. Next, Taiwan undercut Japan, making cheap tools, then improved. Next China undercut Taiwan, etc. Right now, India is poised to become the next China.

They are manufacturing quite a few wrenches, files, and other hand tools, and are poised to expand into power tools. Remember the reports after the last olympics about how some Chinese factories were getting too expensive, and had to close?

We are also seeing more things coming from Vietnam now.....but remember you heard it first here..........Indonesia is the new India. And the world continues to turn.

Rick Potter

Aside: I also remember when a Japanese city was renamed Usa, so that their products could be labeled 'Made in USA'.

[Rick Fisher]

You must be really old.. :)

Usa on Kyushu Island is older than the USA .. :)

[Chris Mahmood]

India and later Pakistan have a long tradition of exporting tools, some of them very high quality. For example, if you've every been operated on in the last 20-30 years it's almost certain that at least some of the surgical instruments were made in one of those countries.

[John Coloccia]

All the Chinese tool threads lately have reminded me of how manufacturing has changed since WWII. I remember when junk tools were from Japan, then quality improved. Next, Taiwan undercut Japan, making cheap tools, then improved. Next China undercut Taiwan, etc. Right now, India is poised to become the next China.

They are manufacturing quite a few wrenches, files, and other hand tools, and are poised to expand into power tools. Remember the reports after the last olympics about how some Chinese factories were getting too expensive, and had to close?

We are also seeing more things coming from Vietnam now.....but remember you heard it first here..........Indonesia is the new India. And the world continues to turn.

Rick Potter

Aside: I also remember when a Japanese city was renamed Usa, so that their products could be labeled 'Made in USA'.

And then Indonesia will be too expensive but by that time we'll have finished going down the tubes and can start manufacturing here again.

FWIW, I don't think India was ever a China. The quality of a lot of products coming out of India is quite good. India is closer to what Japan was after the Japanese figured it out and started raising their quality. If you're ambitious and want to make some $$$, India is the place to be right now.

[Noah Katz]

When I was in college 25 yr ago one of the bigger lathes in the machine shop was Indian, and a very nice lathe it was.


India and later Pakistan have a long tradition of exporting tools, some of them very high quality.

[Carroll Courtney]

Regardless,most is still junk with no support or parts.The wrenches that comes w/the tools are worst.All IMO of course---Carroll

[Alan Schaffter]

I was reading an article recently how the Chinese, despite all their advances, still can't make a decent jet engine for their military aircraft. They initially bought a bunch from Russia, then some years later, decided they could reverse engineer them. But now, years later after failing to build anything decent, are buying again from Russia. The article said it could take another 20 years or more for the Chinese to make their own satisfactory engines!

[Bryan Morgan]

I was reading an article recently how the Chinese, despite all their advances, still can't make a decent jet engine for their military aircraft. They initially bought a bunch from Russia, then some years later, decided they could reverse engineer them. But now, years later after failing to build anything decent, are buying again from Russia. The article said it could take another 20 years or more for the Chinese to make their own satisfactory engines!

That may be but their SKSs and AK-47s (or their variant) are quite nice.

[Bill Berklich]

Seriously... Chinese SKSs and AKs are even looser than Russian arms. Head space wanders all over the map and the steel is crap!