>The quality of a mass-produced product like a consumer hand tool isn't a function of the country in which it is made but rather of its design. All the decisions made during that process and all the cost / performance considerations made are what determine the ultimate outcome.

I have to disagree with this. The quality of consumer-grade hand tools is a function of who controls the manufacturing process and quality control procedures. It has very little to do with who writes the specs, approves the engineering drawings, or selects the materials. The quality depends on how closely the whole process was monitored and controlled by the entity who is attempting to have the tool produced. If they can't or don't closely watch the process and have robust reject/accept criteria then the tool can appear in the package to be fully up to spec without actually hitting any of the design specs.

>It's common to blame Chinese manufacturing for cheap tools, but this gets the causation backwards.

This is not true. Blaming Chinese or Indian etc manufacturers is actually pinning the tail in the correct spot on the donkey. As mentioned by at least one other respondent, Chinese manufacturers will substitute inferior materials and violate other specs at will unless you have eyes on the process and the right to test and reject everything out of spec.

>We wanted cheap tools and sending production overseas was the only way to get them. In fact because less is spent on labor, a better quality product can be had for the same price.

Don't include me in that "we". I had no part as a consumer in the decision to send production overseas. In fact, whenever "we" would go out to buy a new tool or tool set we would always consider where the product was made in the purchasing decision precisely because we had previously bought a tool from a company that had moved production to China or India and later had that tool prematurely fail in normal use. The production location is a strong indicator of quality.

Price only comes into the equation when you are purchasing a tool that you may only use once. In that case you are taking a chance that the product will last long enough to finish your task. Harbor Freight mostly sells tools made in China and other foreign countries. Tradesmen take their business to HF because the return policy is lenient enough that if a tool fails you can take it into their store and walk out with a new one in a few minutes after describing the nature of the failure and the reason for the return. Hand tools like drill bits, screwdrivers, allen wrenches, hand wrenches, etc tend not to be as durable as an equivalent 50 year old Craftsman, Proto, S-K, Snap-On, etc. tool. I have watched HF drill bits untwist while trying to drill a hole through a pine 2x4. That is a quality control failure.

The false idea that spending less on labor gives the consumer a better product for the same price ignores the reality that it simply doesn't work like that and sounds like something that a person who had never owned or used hand or power tools would say. You might have a career in marketing if you can get enough potential customers drunk enough to believe that shit.

>So bringing it back here without increasing the cost to the consumer means altering the design to make it cheaper to build, or banking on supply chain efficiencies to make it worthwhile.

One can also alter the production method by using improved tools or techniques and materials.

At the end of the day though when your job pays for the tools you will use and requires you to do certain tasks day in and day out then you will find that the employer will frequently have a short list of approved tool vendors so that you will have to pay for a tool that is not on the approved list. This helps insure that techs have durable tools that are fit for purpose and have a proven history of performance so that the company and the techs will not have to constantly replace tools that would not have failed had they chosen more expensive, more reliable brands.

Tool branding is everything and people who use tools absolutely care about where they are made and who owns the company making them. Reputation is everything with some things.