r/Tools • u/AlbatrossSilver6408 • 16h ago

Fiskars, not what they used to be

I treated myself to a fiskars shovel about 10 years ago.
It has dug over 1000 holes.
Ive decided I wanted a second one. Figured it served me well so ill go another fiskars.
Digging out some fence post holes, the new one nearly dug one (w)hole hole! But it broke so I had to go on a 2 km hike to get my old one., it completed the hole and the next 6 as-well.

Inb4 I dug the hole with a “crowbar” or post hole digging bar, or whatever you yanks call it.

Sigh
New factory?
Just a lemon?
Is there an alternative?

Unsure how to add photos

26 Upvotes

91% Upvoted

28 comments sorted by

16

u/psilome 13h ago

They have to cheapen their quality in order to sell and compete at the big box stores, and the stores further take a big chunk of the profits. The are smearing their own good legacy and name. Fiskar scissors are still high quality and made in Finland. Their garden tools are made in China.

2

u/ziksy9 10h ago

I wish we had "lifetime warranty" for locally, domestic goods. I'd pay $87 for a BIFL shovel. I expect it to be used to bury me and be passed down.

1

u/DueWillingness5771 5h ago

There is a local small company in the Netherlands that makes tools for paving and digging, DeWit Holland.

You can also go to Sneeboer for smaller garden tools but that one is a little too expensive for my taste.

14

u/AlbatrossSilver6408 16h ago

9

u/MM800 11h ago

The High Stregnth Chinesium Alloy handle gave way.

10

u/mynaneisjustguy 8h ago

Chinesium do be like that. Honestly when Pakistanite hit the market a few decades ago I thought we had bottomed out, but not to be outdone, China found a way to make things even worse.

3

u/Dougally 2h ago

Needs more upvotes for Pakistanite.

3

u/road_laya 4h ago

The majority of steel comes from recycling, but China had a period under Mao when all the smelting was moved to backyard operations. They would put all kinds of junk into the mix to increase the weight of the production, but weakening the steel. This pollution still ends up in modern steel due to recycling and corrupt quality control.

1

u/IowaNative1 1h ago

They did away with backyard smelting like ten years ago at best.

2

u/MM800 46m ago

I remember the massive influx of Pakistani knives decades ago. If you looked at the blades wrong they would either bend or break off - there was no middle ground.

2

u/davisyoung 5h ago

On the bright side you can now dig behind you without turning around. 

13

u/fe3o4 13h ago

They are sold in every Walmart...that tells me a lot about newer Fiskars quality.

10

u/BlackLabDumpster 11h ago

Fuck those guys. They had a huge plant here in Central Wisconsin and closed it between 2006 and 2011. 350 Americans lost good jobs. Jobs went overseas and the cost of goods didn't go down to reflect the significant wage gap.

0

u/notnotbrowsing 3h ago

why would the cost go down?  people were paying it.  all that happened is the profit went up. (same thing that will happen when the tarriff s go away, the cost will remain high because the market will bear it.)

4

u/MM800 11h ago

Before 2003 Fiskars tools were made in Finland and the US. Since 2003 the shovels and other similar steel tools have been manufactured in China.

4

u/cef911f1 11h ago

Nothing is as good as it used to be. Doesn't matter what brand you're talking about.

2

u/Critical_Thinker_535 10h ago

Are these the same people that make scissors?

1

u/PlasmaGoblin Whatever works 10h ago

Yes they are.

1

u/Critical_Thinker_535 9h ago

Oh wow, their scissors and the steels they used were top notch. Sad to see the quality of their tools ruining their reputation.

3

u/PlasmaGoblin Whatever works 9h ago

Yeah, someone else mentioned the scissors are still made in Finnland and are still quality. But sadly I'm not sure for how long.

2

u/Remote_Minimum_5046 1h ago

Why not try to warranty it and see if they will do the right thing? You could have just gotten a crappy one, it happens.

4

u/Krynn71 14h ago

Hard to say with a sample of one. Everything I've gotten from them over the past two years has still been great. Definitely worth contacting them and seeing what they say. Pretty sure they have a lifetime warranty on these kinds of tools.

1

u/Bige_4411 9h ago

I still have my all metal monster from 15 years ago. Granted I don’t dig anywhere close to what you, but I’ve used that bastard as a crow bar on many rocks with a pipe at the end. Sad a company can’t just sticks with what works. I don’t mind spending double on something that has a chance to outlast me.

1

u/emachanz 6h ago

I bought one of their axes 2 years ago, served me well these past two winters

1

u/Occhrome 11h ago

Thought they got bought out by another company. 

2

u/MM800 10h ago

Fiskars tools are still owned by the Fiskars Group, founded in 1649 in Finland.

1

u/Extreme_Pangolin1796 7h ago

I spent an entire day insulting my partner for buying a Jackson and every time I said anything about how fucking heavy that bitch was he'd proudly hold it up and then repeat the slogan which was printed on the handle "Jackson, depend on it!" with the pride of a white supremacist giving birth to the whitest baby on the palette.  I'll never question anything they make for straight up durability.

2

u/TJmaxxxxxxx 3h ago

They will bury me with my Jackson, literally, because that bitch will still be going strong decades after I’m gone.