New and in hand

What’s happening in hand tools these days? Everything.

by Tom Hammel

This is not your same-old-same-old with a new handle. The hand tool market in America is so dynamic it’s downright explosive.

Domestic manufacturers are beset by more Pacific Rim competitors every month. Professional users expect better feel, better functionality and longer tool life — for less cash than we paid last year.

So, how are hand tool makers responding? Here are the insights of some of America’s leading companies.

Channellock
At a spry 121 years old, Channellock has a long heritage as an American manufacturer and a significant reputation to maintain.

“Regardless of what you introduce, it has to maintain the high quality the brand stands for,” says Scott Jonap, vice president of sales and marketing. “If we don’t do that, we have problems.”

Channellock serves the market by keeping its ears to the ground, literally. Scott and his team log long hours traveling to jobsites across the United States and across Europe, Asia and Latin America, meeting and learning how users in various locales do their work.

“We are constantly listening to what the customers are saying, and in many instances, to what our customers’ customers are saying. They are the ones who are truly driving this business,” he says.

It is this intense voice-of-the-customer research that leads to such products as Channellock’s Model 369CRFT lineman’s plier, a prime example of next-generation hand tools. In answer to the user desire to “travel light” with fewer tools in the belt, the 369CRFT lineman’s plier performs five related electrical tasks: crimping, crushing, looping, cutting and fish tape pulling with one tool.

As a growing global company, Channellock produces some tools abroad, such as adjustable wrenches, which are made in Spain, but Jonap makes it clear that the company remains dedicated to manufacturing in the United States and the jobs it provides.

“That’s crucial. It is vitally important to us to continue to manufacture product here in the United States, and to do it in a manner that is profitable and that allows us to maintain the quality that our end-users have come to expect from Channellock.”

Klein Tools
At 150-years-young Klein Tools, if it ain’t built to last, forget it.

“A lot of the ‘innovation’ you see in the market is gimmicky, ” says Jeff Konkle, manager of new product development for Klein Tools. “A gadget that now does three things instead of one might add value for the occasional user, but it won’t for someone who does the job all day.”

Following this logic, Klein ignores tool-of-the-moment trends in favor of genuine innovation that addresses specific needs of professional users.

“For example, nut drivers have existed for a long time, and magnetic tools have also, but in the past, a magnet in a nut driver plugged the hollow shaft portion, so if you were working on a long bolt, you either had to make a choice between magnetic or the hollow shaft,” Konkle observes. “Not any more: Our hollow shaft magnetic nut drivers solve that problem.”

On the scale of quality versus cost, Klein favors quality every time.

“When people tour our plants they are amazed at the number of checks a product has to go through to meet our incredibly tight tolerances,” Konkle says. “Klein tools are priced higher than other tools and our position is that extra money is returned to the purchaser multiple times in other values,” Konkle says. “Our answer is overall value — does the tool save you time?”

Cooper Hand Tools
“As our workforce continues to mature, ergonomic products have gained a firm footing within the work environments we sell,” says Scott Bruce, manager of business development – industrial channel: “Our Crescent RapidSlide Adjustable Wrench has been a huge success due to a worker’s ability to quickly slide the jaws onto a fastener for instant results.

“This is also an example of an item offering a new solution to a commonly used product. Product lines will need to offer new solutions to tackle common tasks if they are going to establish a foothold in this competitive environment.”

Cooper is also developing tools that produce more power with less operator effort. For example, Crescent Compound Action Pliers are said to increase cutting force by 50 percent while decreasing the tool’s weight. Such innovations with both new and existing product lines will continue to drive product development at Cooper, Bruce says. In addition, “We must continue to address safety concerns and the maturing work force — those are the foremost issues in our end-users’ minds.”

Greenlee Hand Tools
Greenlee hand tools? Yup. The company known for its electrical testing and cable pulling products has entered the hand tool arena with 116 new hand tools.

“For the last three to five years, people have been asking us why we didn’t provide hand tools,” says Brian Allison, senior product manager. “We finally had to ask ourselves that question.”

In doing the research to answer it, Greenlee hit the electrical industry’s big wall — the huge number of electricians heading into retirement. Greenlee decided to target the younger electricians coming up to replace their retiring brethren. Three key attributes came to the fore: ergonomics, weight and color.

“The older workers are trying to prevent any further damage from occurring through repetitive use of their tools, and the new guys coming into the market are trying to prevent that damage from happening to begin with,” Allison says. “So we spent a lot of time, energy and resources developing an ergonomic grip that will help protect users from those types of injuries.”

Greenlee’s research also led it to devise lighter weight tools, which younger workers also prefer. Finally, Greenlee made a bold appeal to younger users’ sense of style.

“Newer workers like the bright, edgy, vibrant colors that really catch your eye, whereas older guys find them kind of gaudy,” Allison says. “So our new color is brighter, a little edgier.”

This article appeared in the February/March 2007 issue of MRO Today magazine. Copyright 2007.

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