Last week, I noted the sale of Craftsman to Stanley Black & Decker. As a person who has spent a long time in the woodworking universe, I’ve seen quite a few of these corporate events — where one big company buys another. For example, the table saw I started using in my dad’s shop was a Delta Unisaw, but it was co-branded with Crescent.
Yesterday, I got the news that SKIL power tools was being sold by Bosch, USA to Chervon. Now, Bosch was not the first owner of SKIL in my lifetime. In the same shop that I grew up in, there was a SKIL radial arm saw with a 24-in. blade and a 30-in. throw (yeah, baby!), as well as a SKIL router with an aluminum body. (I still have that router.)
I know the folks at Chervon, and they make some really good quality handheld power tools, so I feel like SKIL is in good hands. Some are fond of saying that the only constant is change, and that truism seems to have been proved right again.
Rob Johnstone, Woodworker’s Journal
