Brown & sharpe co. History.

Just finished a book on the company written by Gerald M. Carbone, "Brown & Sharpe and the Measure of American Industry". This was covered in another thread, but I don't know which post it was posted under. Wonderful read, however the finale is rather sad. Referring to page 250, the company had sometime earlier moved some of its small tools to China, including combination squares.

"Henry Sharpe III purchased a Chinese made combination square to give to his son. "When he tried to lock the ruled blade into the tool's pivoting head it wobbled. 'It's good enough,' Henry III said of the tool's performance. 'But in comparison,[to US made squares] its junk. There's a fit and feel that's not very nice. The magic leaked out of the tool.'......Brown & Sharpe set out from its earliest days to build the best product possible. I think the world no longer wanted the best. They wanted good enough."

Sad

Tom

http://www.practicalmachinist.com/v...ory/new-book-brown-sharpe-mfg-company-344467/

Larry

I unknowingly purchased a lot of new measuring tools from them during the chinese years. If i remember correctly it was more $$ then mitutoyo or starrett.

What an utter dissapointment. Sent them all back.