A SAD DAY IN AMERICA - ANOTHER AMERICAN COMPANY BITES THE DUST!

[DWalt]

Brown and Sharpe went out in the early 80's I believe. The 1 million SF building in " Precision Park" North Kingstown, RI is mostly warehousing foe many companies. I am not sure that they are completely gone. I think some manufacturing moved to England, at least for a while.

I believe that was the longest labor strike in US history. Lot of people lived there. The plant was 2 miles from my house. Striking labor was out there 24/7 for over 3 years. Striking labor killed a lot of manufacturing in RI

Since 2001 B&S has been a division of a Swedish corporation and the B&S measurement devices are made in Sweden.

 

[oldbrownhat]

Since 2001 B&S has been a division of a Swedish corporation and the B&S measurement devices are made in Sweden.

Thanks for the update According to Wikipedia.

Brown & Sharpe is a division of Hexagon AB, a Swedish multinational corporation focused mainly on metrological tools and technology. During the 19th and 20th centuries, Brown & Sharpe was one of the best-known and most influential machine tool builders and was a leading manufacturer of instruments for machinists (such as micrometers and indicators). Its reputation and influence were such that its name is often considered to be inseparably paired with certain industrial standards that it helped establish, including:

• The American wire gauge (AWG) standards for wire;
• The Brown & Sharpe taper in machine tool spindle tapers; and
• The Brown & Sharpe worm threadform for worm gears.

Since being acquired by Hexagon Metrology in 2001, Brown and Sharpe has concentrated exclusively on metrology equipment...​

 

[Protocall_Design]

The 2 that I always go to are Brown & Sharpe and Mitutoyo. Starrett was once a premium brand, one of the best, but has been in decline in terms of quality for 40 years or so. The older Starrett tools are still some of the best you can get. Now they are cheap on eBay.

 

[DWalt]

At one time, I frequently drove through a small West Texas town called Knippa, which was not very far east of Uvalde. One of the few businesses there was the Knippa Tool Trader. I don't know where the owner (an elderly gentleman) got his merchandise, but he had about every type of used tool imaginable. I occasionally stopped in just to see what he had. He always had lots of measuring instruments, many were known brands. I have bought some tools from him, but the only measuring device I bought there was a hole depth micrometer. It came in a case with a set of rods up to about 4" long, so the depths of blind holes up to that depth could be measured precisely. I might have used it once, but I don't remember why. But it's easier to just use the hole depth rod on a dial caliper. He shut down about ten years ago. It was a very interesting place in an unlikely location. I was sorry to see it go.

 

[chief38]

Well.... all I can say is I HOPE you more optimistic fellas here are correct and I am wrong!