I decided to check out the tool department at Sears today and see how much had gone Chinese. I didn't really need to buy anything, but I decided aforehand that I might buy a new 1/4"-drive ratchet if I could find one with the polished-finish handle and US-made (my only 1/4" ratchet is an old Benchtop unit from Taiwan, part of a set that a well-meaning relative got me as a gift, not knowing I already had much better US-made tools in 3/8" and 1/2" drives).
It turned out all the Craftsman 1/4" ratchets and a few of the 3/8" ratchets I saw today were Chinese. I didn't see any 1/2" ratchets or torque wrenches from China. All of the separately-racked sockets and wrenches appeared to be US made. There were, however, some bundled sets of sockets and wrenches (on cardboard or plastic "flats") that were Chinese. The new black flat-finished wrenches and ratches are all Chinese.
Obviously anything marked "Evolv" or "Craftsman/Evolv" is all Chinese. The latter is particularly annoying because until they started dual-branding stuff, you had a pretty good chance of getting US-made tools just by avoiding the Evolv stuff entirely. Now the distinction is blurred because of the stuff that carries both names. The aforementioned Chinese ratchets carried only the Craftsman name however.
By this point, I decided I wasn't leaving without buying a new US-made 1/4" ratchet, so I bought one of the sets which included a raised-panel ratched (not the polished model I wanted) and a number of sockets, including a few I actually needed like 7mm and 10mm deep. Everything appears to be made by Danaher (manufacturers codes include H, G2D and K3Z). I've never owned a raised-panel Craftsman ratchet, but good or bad I'm not likely to break it, since after all, its a 1/4". I don't use the 1/4" stuff very often anyway.
It was disappointing to see so much Evolv and "Craftsman/Evolv" stuff in the store, and even more so to see people lining up to buy it. You can still get a ton of stuff there that's not Chinese, but it looks like most consumers just don't care. Note also that the racks of 3/8" ratchets included some from the US and some from China, and they were exactly the same price.
