A recent experience buying a 110 punch down tool.
Above are two 110 punch down tools, the yellow one is a Harris-Dracon (US made) tool from 1990 or so, the blue one is a 2023 copy from China.
I purchased the blue one as it has a couple of handy accessories, fold out tools copied from the genuine Krone tool.
It is said the Chinese can copy anything… but look closely… is the blue tool a faithful copy?
Firstly, to the yellow tool, note the word CUT on the case, it is only on one side… and it matches the little cutting knife projection on the punch down tip (see above)… so when you are using it in confined space and poor light, it is pretty easy to see the CUT side and to orient the tool so it cuts the wire off on the scrap side, not on the cable side of the connection.
But the Chinese jobbie has CUT molded into both sides (save money on separate injection molds), AND the tool is fitted 90° rotated to the yellow one… so you cannot label one side or the other CUT. Chinese Quality?
Now this might be an assembly defect rather than totally a cloning failure… and the pics of the one I bought showed the tool tip in the correct orientation and did not show CUT on the non-cutting side (see above), it might be a third or later generation copy. What is clear is that the final product was not tested by a competent person.
So, fully refunded as the supplied goods did not match the pics shown in the listing.
If you have in mind buying one of these Zoerax or other branded things, be careful!