Guess which countries manufactured my tools

[Frank Pellow]

OK, maybe I was off on the order, but I didn't do too badly on most of my percentage guesses:

Germany___25 vs 25.6
Canada____25 vs 24.8
Chinas_____40 vs 19.8 (way off on that one)
USA_______10 vs 12.7

Yes Rob, I noticed that the other percentages were close, but forgot to give you credit. Sorry.

[Frank Pellow]

Frank,

Since you are doing an inventory I am assuming your list includes both hand and power tools. How does it break down if you separate the two?

Dave Fried

Yes Dave, the list includes both hand and power (as well as benches and cabinets and rollers and stuff like that).

That woud be an interesting way to look at things. It will take a bit of restructuring, but I will do so (probably tomnorrow) and let you know. My guess is that Canada would win the hand tool category with Japan or the USA second.

OK, here is the hand tool list. Last night when I predicted that USA or Japan would come second, I forgot that Bessey clamps are made in Germany. So, Germany places a strong second.

Canada______29
Germany_____25
USA_________16
Sweden______10
Japan_________8
UK___________3
China_________2
Korea_________1
Unknown______6

[lou sansone]

70% of my equipement is USA

10% italy or european
10% brazil
10% tiawan

looks like I am odd man out again
lou

[Frank Pellow]

70% of my equipement is USA

10% italy or european
10% brazil
10% tiawan

looks like I am odd man out again
lou

Nothing at all from Canada? Say a Veritas hand plane or a Leigh jig?

[Christian Aufreiter]

Hi Frank,

I don't know if you posted this thread for a specific reason but when talking about "Made in ..." I think we should try to figure out how much of a product really comes from the "Made in ..." country. In German, we call that "Wertschöpfungsanteil" but I'm not sure if "value added" is the right translation. I'm not familiar with the specific situation but I know that German products must have a certain percentage of "Wertschöpfung" in Germany in order to justify "Made in Germany".

Regards,

Christian

[Mark Singer]

Christian,

Is that a real word , or are you testing our German? The one with the "W"

Hi Frank,

I don't know if you posted this thread for a specific reason but when talking about "Made in ..." I think we should try to figure out how much of a product really comes from the "Made in ..." country. In German, we call that "Wertschöpfungsanteil" but I'm not sure if "value added" is the right translation. I'm not familiar with the specific situation but I know that German products must have a certain percentage of "Wertschöpfung" in Germany in order to justify "Made in Germany".

Regards,

Christian

[Ed Blough]

Germany___25.6
Canada____24.8
China______15.9
USA_______12.7
Italy_______10.0
Taiwan______3.9
Japan_______2.0
Sweden_____1.6
Thailand_____1.0
Mexico______0.9
UK__________0.6
France______0.1
Korea_______0.1

Unknown____0.8

One thing we have to remember here, tools made in Taiwan were at one time labeled as made in China. The United States and most of the free world recognized Taiwan as the real government of China until fairly recently.
I think if a tool is ten years old or older and it is labeled China I think it is safe to assume it was made in Taiwan.

[Frank Pellow]

One thing we have to remember here, tools made in Taiwan were at one time labeled as made in China. The United States and most of the free world recognized Taiwan as the real government of China until fairly recently.
I think if a tool is ten years old or older and it is labeled China I think it is safe to assume it was made in Taiwan.

All my tools that are labelled "made in China" are made in China, not in Taiwan.

[Ed Blough]

Hi Frank,

I don't know if you posted this thread for a specific reason but when talking about "Made in ..." I think we should try to figure out how much of a product really comes from the "Made in ..." country. In German, we call that "Wertschöpfungsanteil" but I'm not sure if "value added" is the right translation. I'm not familiar with the specific situation but I know that German products must have a certain percentage of "Wertschöpfung" in Germany in order to justify "Made in Germany".

Regards,

Christian

I believe in most cases a significant portion of the product must be made in the country for that country to be listed as the made in country. There are some new terms appearing on the scene such as "Assembled in xxxxxx" or "Made from parts from xxxxx assembled in xxxxxxx"

Personally I really don't care what country made the item as much as I care what country ends up with the profit. An item made in one nation by a company owned by another nation has profits going to that second nation. Profits are what are used to build more assets that increase the wealth and financial strength of the owing nation.

[Ed Blough]

Ed, we are not supposed to discuss politics at Saw Mill Creek.

All my tools that are labelled "made in China" are made in China, not in Taiwan.

Sorry I must have missed that prohibition.
I apologize to all, not for what I said but for saying here. Sorry

[JayStPeter]

Frank,

Question: Did you count your general use tools (socket sets, wrenches etc.), or is this list just WWing related?
What's from Sweden?

Jay

[Ian Abraham]

Had a quick look around my shed over here on the other side of the world...

And my number one came up Swiss !!
But then I am a fan of Bosch power tools

The 'American' brand name stuff (DeWalt, B&D) is from all over the place, Taiwan, England, Mexico.
Some Japanese and Dutch stuff there as well.

Maybe another question.. Where are your Favourite tools from???

Cheers

Ian

[Christian Aufreiter]

Christian,

Is that a real word , or are you testing our German? The one with the "W"

Mark, believe or not, "Wertschöpfung" is a real German word. It might not be the most common one though . Seriously, what is the "strangest" thing about it? The length? Well, "Wertschöpfung" consists of THREE words:
- "Wert" (noun): value
- "Schöpfung" (noun): creation, work, product (the word-by-word translation is definitely not appropriate)
- "Anteil" (noun): share, portion
-> "Wertschöpfungsanteil" (noun)

@ Ed:
Yep, the portion is the important and interesting aspect. I wonder if there are national or international laws/standards.
However, I don't really where a tool (product) is made either. To me, it's more important that the tool serves my needs and that there's a service dept. not too far away.

Regards,

Christian

[JayStPeter]

With this thread in mind, I quickly toured my shop. I think the USA wins, followed closely by Taiwan. They are clearly far ahead of any other country. Taiwan is on most of my tools, just not a couple of the most expensive (Unisaw, Oneida).
It's a close race for 3rd between Germany and Canada (my Veritas and Festool investments are similar so far). I thought my Bosch's would give the edge to Germany, but they just added to the USA tally. The Fein vac ... Italy. The only China I could find was my Delta DP (I'll try not to hold that piece of junk against China).

Some quick back of the envelope calculations (based on $)
1. USA 38%
2. Taiwan 29%
3. Germany/Canada (tie) 13% ea.
5. Italy/China (tie) <3% ea.

Taiwan is the clear leader in number of tools, with probably 50%. The US would drop significantly as there are a limited number, but all good expensive stuff

I'm sure if I thoroughly went through all my tools the percentages would change and ties would break, but this is probably pretty close.

For those who think I have too much time on my hands, please feel free to trade weeks with me. I needed a 5 minute diversion, thanks Frank.

Jay

[Tim Morton]

Hi Frank,

I don't know if you posted this thread for a specific reason but when talking about "Made in ..." I think we should try to figure out how much of a product really comes from the "Made in ..." country. In German, we call that "Wertschöpfungsanteil" but I'm not sure if "value added" is the right translation. I'm not familiar with the specific situation but I know that German products must have a certain percentage of "Wertschöpfung" in Germany in order to justify "Made in Germany".

Regards,

Christian

wasn't that what VW called Farfegnugen?