[dingaling]

"Pros don’t quit because their tools are suboptimal."

Indeed they don't quit. Quite the opposite, pros dump sub-optimal tools ASAP and buy something decent to finish the job. The productivity of a tool that meets requirements hugely outweighs any additional cost.

In the UK Draper brand hand-tools were well regarded until the 2000s, when they started applying their brand to cheaply-manufactured tools from China. Word of insufficient quality and durability spread amongst 'pro' users who quickly stopped buying them.

Draper later tried to reintroduce a 'Draper Pro' line with higher quality but the brand was irrepariably tainted. Now they're mainly found in the hands of occasional DIYers who remember the brand name.

[smacktoward]

The same thing happened in the US to Craftsman tools, the line sold by (now rapidly vanishing) retailer Sears. For decades the Craftsman name was synonymous with high quality, reliable tools -- a reputation also shared by other Sears house brands, like Kenmore appliances and DieHard automotive batteries. Then Sears got a new CEO, production got shipped to China and the quality of all those brands dropped through the proverbial floor. And all the cost-cutting didn't even help turn the company around; if anything, Sears went under faster afterwards than it had been doing before.

Nearly a century of brand value destroyed in a few years, to no positive purpose whatsoever. What a waste.

[seanp2k2]

Speaking of hand tools, is there anything between something like Xuron / Xcelite / CHP and Erem? $100 for a pair of diagonal cutters is too much but the rivet on my CHP PN2007 sheared when using it for some heavier-but-not-IMO-abusive work. I don't mind paying $20-40 for a good set.

[lebski88]

Knippex might fit the bill.