On Tue, 30 Nov 1999, Richard Beels wrote:
> FACOM has been around forever. French company, says "American" in the name
> though I forget the whole acronym.
Franco-Americaine de Construction d'Outillage Mecanique. french for
"french-american mechanical tool manufacturing". got points in my french
class for that.
> It's now one of the largest tool conglomerates in Europe.
>
> SK, I think, is an American company that recently has had a large part of
> its stock purchased by FACOM.
facom owns s-k outright. you'll notice (if you look through the catalogs
from preceeding years) that the tools are becoming more and more alike.
the s-k "pro" screwdrivers are now facom ergotwist screwdrivers. the
"tuff1" ratchets are s-k pro ratchet handles avec facom innards. facom's
ratcheting flare wrench now has s-k stamped on the side of it. I don't
like it because we could get facom tools from s-k dealers for over 10
years, but now they're getting more and more reluctant to give us facom
stuff, they'd rather sell s-k stuff. which is why you get s-k catalogs
instead of facom. if you specifically request (demand) a facom catalog,
you get their _american_ catalog, which is abbreviated, along with a note
to contact griot's garage. I've asked a french friend to get me a french
market facom catalog, as they have all the good stuff that hasn't yet been
absorbed into the s-k line. ultimate garage is a facom dealer as well as
griots, and I've been told (by richard?) that's they've got a catalog,
dunno if it's facom's, but I'll order something and find out.
I was also wondering what the deal was with the s-k foundry? presumably
they still make some stuff stateside? no? I know there are others not
mentioned, cornwell has a foundry in ohio, I think?
I'd kinda doubt that williams uses the _exact_ same dies for kobalt and
snap-on. I compared the kobalt combo wrench to one of my snap-ons, and
they aren't the same. the kobalt handle is pretty much rectangular in
cross-section, and really does hurt your hand when you pull hard. the
snap-on is more rounded. as well, the kobalt is visibly looser on the
fastener. maybe these are snap-on rejects? can't explain the handle
differences, though. the breaker bars seem to share the same grip,
though, it just seems the kobalt doesn't have those nifty machined
indentations at the base.
and I know stanley owns mac and blackhawk (didn't know about husky), but
the blackhawk stuff doesn't seem similar to the mac stuff. these look
awfully different to be from the same dies, shape wise. so the price
difference is different steel in the better tools? surely they can't be
charging mac prices for better plated blackhawk stuff?
> FACOM also owns (large parts of) USAG (Italian?) and Beissbarth...
didn't know this. I'd like to find some usag tools, just to try them.
who's beissbarth?
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