Thread: Cheaper Sorby tools

Erm... what do you mean by cheaper? The least expensive they currently sell or, maybe, the old 2nd-hand tools available most anywhere or are there 'Sorbi' knock-offs coming out of the east now?

AFAIK Sorby doesn't make any CS tools anymore, although I could be wrong. It would surprise me if they did, though.

Older, 2nd-hand Sorbys are more likely to be CS. Personally, I prefer the oldest CS ones to the modern HSS Sorbys, so long as they still have plenty of meat on them.

Mind you, there was a period during their transition from CS to HSS that the quality of the CS wasn't quite up to what I'd expect, but they're still quite usable and far superior to the cheap chaiwanese tools that are better described as mild steel (if one is feeling charitable.)

Originally Posted by Skew ChiDAMN!!

chaiwanese

I don't think it's fair to lump those two countries into one group when it comes to tool manufacture. Although China can produce good tools now.

China’s made good stuff for decades.
Its the buyers who pick the cheap crud to make a quick buck.
I bought a Chinese made vernier height gauge about 40 years ago, good as Pom stuff.
Mates were bringing in Russian made machinery and tools, depending on what part of the empire it was manufactured in some was as good as Wadkin others as bad as Woodfast.
Once the empire collapsed it all got too hard.
H.

Originally Posted by jack620

I don't think it's fair to lump those two countries into one group when it comes to tool manufacture..

By chaiwanese I'm referring to the cheap & nasty goods that have minimal information and are of dubious origins. Not specifically China or Taiwan, although their past practises were the reason the term was first coined.

Many other countries are just as guilty of making chaiwanese products... probably any that have both a manufacturing base and citizens that like to hustle.

I would not consider Sorby's products in this category.

Well here is an interesting fact back in the late 1950's when Japan starting get into tools etc and exporting, the quality was so very poor they built a town called Usa so they could stamp the tools made in USA. I recall Taiwan going through the same learning curve and in those days if it wasnt made in Europe, England of the USA it was deemed to be crap and there was a lot of truth in that deeming.