Are you a tradesman, electrician, plumber or a DIYer? If any of the answers are positive, this list of the best hand tool brands is for you. Hand tools are divided into several types of practice. Some of them are pliers set, some are ratchet and sockets, and some others are wrenches as well. No matter whichever your desired tool-set it, you must want it to come from a reputed brand. And that’s why we’ve executed this long researched article.
In this guide, we’ll be talking some basics about selecting a quality brand, and we’ll take you through some best brands in that business. Stay with us until the end of the article.
What is A Hand Tool?
To be straightforward, a hand tool is something that’s driven by muscular power instead of motors. In practice, there are many types, and all of them has the same generic name of hand tools. The categories include wrenches, cutters, pliers, hammering tools, screwdrivers, vises and many more.
And when it comes to hand tool sets, there is a little change in the destination. In a hand tool set, you will have some size variation of the same tool. Workers often need to have different sizes of the same product and that why the hand tools came up on the market. And this article will include brands that have both hand tools and hand tool sets on the market.
We’ve covered brands that produce both hand tools and hand tools sets like drill, drill bits. In fact, in the case of some brands, there are mixed cases.
Why USA Brands?
Professionals who’re dealing with day to day tradesman-ship, are likely to recommend products that are made in the USA only. But what’s the reason behind that? Well, here is the answer to this most asked question-
What does a hand tool or hand toolset is going to benefit you wit? Of course, it’s an ability to elevate the forces at the right place. With such responsibilities in hands, these tools must have to contain a few active features. And you can’t trust just any brand with a shiny set of advertisements in this case. And that’s why we’re only focused on brands that are from the USA.
If I explain it a bit more, here are the core qualities in the USA made a brand that others don’t have-
Micro-Level Features
Often, a few extension with the tool-set or a set of accessories makes the whole difference between a dull toolset and an effective one. Take the screwdrivers as an example. The USA made branded screwdriver will have great grip and straight edges at the top. And that’s what we are looking for the best hand tools.
A Promise of Durability
Most of the hand tools (except some hammering tools) are made of steels and steel alloys. If you end up with a poor quality metal in your hand tool, that would be the worst nightmare as a worker. Because with a broken or bent tool in hand, you can’t even put a single strike on the job.
On that note, tools that are made in the USA have checked all the boxes of quality. Starting from the pliers to the ratchets, everything is made to be extremely durable.
A Great Price
Price of such tools isn’t that much high in practice. But some brands that imports products from other zones of the world are bound to sell them with higher prices. And as a user, you will have to pay a few extra bucks to the seller. Who would like that?
Considering all aspects, we would definitely place our bets on the brands from the USA. And in the following section of the article, we’re about to review some of the top brands of the market.
Top 10 Hand Tool Brands of 2019
At this part of the content, we will be taking you through the core lists of best hand tool brands on the market. As all of them are good in terms of quality, we won’t call it an ascending order. Instead, let’s say these brands are arranges based on the popularity and brand value-
Armstrong
One of the finest brands in the USA that’d been producing professional grade hand tools is the Armstrong company. Most of its popular products are in the market for years, and the reason behind that is their extreme functionality. You won’t get to have a complaint about the durability, functionality, and structure of hand tools from Armstrong.
If we have to specify the uses to a micro level, it would come to mechanical purposes like aerospace, government, military uses and such other fields. What it means is, even best of the professionals who need tools, keep their trust in the brand of Armstrong.
Williams
The second brand of the list is a USA original. But some products of the brand are from overseas. However, if you strictly stick to the only USA made tools, you may filter out those just from the catalog.
A great side of Williams the brand is, they don’t have heavyweight price tags of high prices on them. That made some of the people thinking that they won’t last for long. But as long as we’re concerned about their user’s review, it’s nothing but a rumor.
Proto
Personally, I am a great fan of the wrenches that Proto makes. Not because of the strong built, but also for the performance at the garage. Also, some of their screwdrivers had been able to gain impressive popularity I the market.
Just like Williams, not all the items of Proto are made in the USA. But most of them are. And that’s what takes us to a position of choice. As per your demand, it would be better to choose products that are made in the USA only. And in case you cant finds the product right under the banner of Proto, you can find it right away from their sister concern brands. Two of the best sister brands of Proto is the Decker Umbrella and the Stanley Black.
Martin Tools
Martin tools are quite famous for its repair tools and accessories. When it comes to hand tools, most of the brands are focused on professional grade tool sets. But in case you’re up to repairing your backward or home appliances, you can consider products fro Martin tools.
So far, the best hand tools that I found from this brand are repaired tool sets, hammer sets, combined tool set kits, wrenches etc.
SK Hand Tool
Unlike some other brands that produce a wide variety of products and hand tools are one of the productions, SK Hand tool is an exception. It’s a brand that produces only hand tools and for the last couple of years, they’ve come up a long way from where their previous level was.
SK hand tools used to produce premium grade driver sockets, socket sets, and thumb wheel ratchets. The ratchet and socket set that they produce, is regarded as one of the best items in the market.
Wright Tool
Some of the home users don’t actually need a handful of sizes in a ratchet or wrench. So, we look forward to specific sizes made for household uses. And that’s why we’ve listed Wright Tools- the brand on the list.
Wright tools are best producers of small tools and tool sets with specific sizes. We have gone through several reviews of the ratchets that this brand produces and all of them were about the positive. As a brand, they might not have that much variation in products as other brands of the list do.But within the little offerings, there are some exceptions and that’s what we would recommend to you.
Wilde Tool
The brand Wilde Tool is quite new in the game. But so far, they have amazed us with some of the finest inclusion of hand tools. Few of their great products include polished pliers, gasket scraper, key extractor, pliers etc.
The best feature of all of the products from Wilde tool is, they are great in design and finish. Such layers of protection will save it from being rusted and damaged. So, the summary line is, hand tools from Wilde tool will be one of the most durable tools that you will be buying.
Lang Tools
Lang tools are the last brand of the list of best hand tools brand of 2018. Instead of single sized products, they’ve come up with one of the most excellent tool sets of the market. And as we’re talking about hand tool sets here, the brand deserves to make a place.
You can look forward to these of tool and wrenches, the set of pliers, the adjuster wrenches and some more from the brand. No matter whichever you end up with, it will be a part of your day to day workmanship.
Types of Hand Tools
A professional craftsman has to depend on his tools for all of his professional works. But not all the works come up with requirements of same hand tools. So, in this section, we will be providing a brief description of each of the major types of all hands on tools. Here you go-
Plier Set
Pliers are one of the most essentials of workers like DIYers, plumbers, electricians and many more. The objective of pliers is to provide for holding of objects that are hard to hold with hands. In some cases, pliers are used to holding hot metals, which were impossible in any other way.
Also, with a good quality plier in hands, you can imply greater forces to bend or break wires, metal bodies and so on.
Wrench Set
The wrench is another popular hand tool throughout the globe. It’s known as a wrench in South America and knows as Spanners outside of North America.
However, whatever the name is, they share equal importance in works. Wrenches are used to provide stronger grips and a mechanical advantage. What mechanical advantage means is, it can enhance the applied force and make a certain job easy.
Socket Set with ratchet
A socket and ratchet system is basically a combination of two tools named the socket and the ratchet. The ratchet is a straight metal made a handle, where the socket is a square drive connector.
the combined mechanism comes to be in many uses when it comes to professionals. Specially mechanics use it a lot to tighten a fastener by engaging to it mechanically.
Screwdriver Set
Screws are a common part of any mechanical assembly and machinery. And wherever there is a screw, you need to have a screwdriver. And the set of multiple screwdrivers with variation in sizes is called as a screwdriver set.
The sole purpose of a screwdriver is to screw or unscrew the screws. A good quality driver will let you put maximum pressure on screws for a tight connection between machine parts.
Mallet Set
If you need to reform or reshape anything that’s sophisticated and flexible, the tool you need is a good quality mallet set. In a mallet set, there will be three or more mallets in one box. Based on the hardness and size of the object body, the size can be chosen. And that’s why the appeal of a mallet set is more to workers comparing to single size mallets.
Bottom Line
That was all about the best hand tools brand of 2019. We’ve looked at the brands from every viewpoint and therefore, got the best one covered for you. All you have to do is, find the right brand that has your desired product, and grab it as soon as possible.
An additional live with your purchase decision will be – some of the brands provide extra accessories with hand tools sets. And they take a few dollars more for the price. In case you know how to make the best use of the accessories, that is praiseworthy. But in case you don’t, it would be better to move to a simpler one.
