will they stand behind the tools still

Right, Sears gets $900M today for a hamburger Tuesday.

Sure, but it's apparent that Stanley thinks the name will make that money back, and more. Perhaps they think they can drive the cost of tools back to where they once were?

I'll bet if they knew how much interest there was, that they would post a copy of their contract here! ; ) Maybe the details are public (but Stanley, B&D is an closed foreign corp, right?)

I initially typed SPITIT duplicator in place of SPIRIT duplicator

The hand tools before 1995 were made BY STANLEY and they were better than the later tools, so STANLEY made Craftsman tools will likely be better quality tools than the latest Craftsman tools.

I doubt that Sears has any of the above.

Sears isn't but your point is right on.

Sure, but thread has taken a left turn (right into the gutter ;-).

I understood the logic but don't agree with it. To come to that conclusion you have to assume the quality is determned by who makes the tool and has nothing to do with specifications or the price points set by Sears.

I think from the perspective of most folks, and myself, "quality" has to do with how well a tool lives up to doing what it is supposed to do, without falling apart or breaking along the way. We don't really give a dern what the specifications say and price has little to do with the matter either. The tool either satisfies or it doesn't. Admittedly, I've got a couple of Craftsman tools that were disappointing, out of the box.

GE buys competition all of the time, take who/what is good and Promise to upgrade, then several months later - sell the building materials off and scrap the building. They loose the purchase price, get some this and that and write off the costs.

Mart> >>> birds of a feather flock together so now craftsman stanley and black

Sears gave the same specs to Danaher as they gave to Stanley - and Danaher undercut Stanley on price, getting the contract. The Danaher manufactured tools likely MEET the spec, but don't excede - while Stanley likely exceded the specs. Most of the Danaher production is off-shore - as is a fair amount of Stanley's production.

Some tools are poorly designed - others are poorly built - and some are both. The feel of a tool generally has to do with design - as (generally) does the look. How long or well it performs is more oftem how they are built, although design also comes into it.

dunno anything about them

both are publically traded

swk and shld so the info is out there

semantics

sears does not do manufacturing

There's a lot in that paragraph, but...

The specification is what directs the manufacturer how to make the quality (or not so) tool. It has everything to do with its performance and durability.

Of cost isn't your concern, I"m sure you have an all-green workshop, right?

The molds would be made of sand and binder, so nothing to sell there. The patterns are limited in the number of molds you will make, not likely to economic the ship them any where.

Nope all the Sears has to sell is the Craftsman name, they are already selling the wrenchs, rachets sets through Ace hardware and others.

That's not a fair comparison, I have mostly-all-Craftsman tool boxes (I keep English and metric separate).

To my mind, the green brand is a boutique item. Snap-On too. Craftsman is not. YMMV.

According to the news story in the paper about the purchase, Stanley plans to add manufacturing capacity in the US for the Craftsman tools.

I suspect Craftsman will be one of Stanley's "premium" lines. - along with Proto and MAC