Please take a moment to let me introduce the Hubbard Jointer Company and our products to you.

My father, Dick Hubbard, started laying brick in Sioux Falls, South Dakota in 1924. He continued as a bricklayer and masonry contractor until 1965. During the latter years of his bricklaying career Dick began to develop tools for his own use that were better than anything then commercially available. His friends began asking for them. Then people from further and further away asked for them. In 1960 Dick began commercial production of the Hubbard Jointer. In 1965 he quit laying brick to devote all of his time to the Hubbard Jointer Company. I bought the company from my father in 1986. Dad was 79 years old and thought he might like to do something else for a while. Dad passed away in 2007, just short of one hundred and one years of age. In keeping with the conduct of his entire life his last words to me were “It is good.” 

The Hubbard Jointer Company is located in rural Washington State near Cheney, Washington. The Company provides a livable income to the full-time employees and takes pride in providing part-time work for students from Eastern Washington University located here in Cheney. We pay well enough to enable the students to remain in school without developing debt. We adapt the work schedule to their school schedule and in this way have enabled a number of students to remain in college, complete their degree work and move on to fruitful careers elsewhere.

Several years ago one of the largest trowel trade tool distributors in the United States contacted me. They are a company whose name we have all heard. They said they wanted to distribute my tools. I was flattered. I provided them with the engineering data on my tools so they would know what great products they were buying. They took the information to a company in China and contracted with them to copy The Hubbard Jointer. They apparently learned nothing of character value from their deception because in 2008 they took the rest of our products to China and copied them too. I guess I am their personal designer.  There is a bit of poetic justice in their dealings. The company in China has sent a sales force to this country to sell the imitation tools to other distributors. 

Some of our customers carry the imitation tools. They acknowledge the poor quality of the imitations but they can be purchased for much less than the original tools. The price point became an important issue for these customers. Most of the customers continue to carry the Hubbard Jointer Company products because they have learned they can trust our quality and service.

The threat to my company comes from more than price competition. The imitation tools appear so much like the Hubbard Jointers and Sled Runners that the craftsmen who are accustomed to buying my tools are often unaware the tool they are purchasing is not our product. The dealers are more than willingly buy the cheap imitations and provide them often at the price the craftsman is accustomed to paying for the quality of the original Hubbard Jointers and Sled Runners. The switch is only discovered when the poor quality of the imitations disappoint the craftsman and he realizes the tools he received are not the tools he thought he purchased.
There are many worrisome aspects to the off-shore products. The most frustrating consideration for the Hubbard Jointer Company is the fact that the tools my father invented and perfected are being confused with cheap, poor quality tools. The tools are copied by people who do not understand the principles of their design nor even how or where they are to be used. Finished masonry is not in the Chinese tradition.

Are we, as Americans, becoming willing to exchange high quality, well designed and well crafted products for poor quality just because it has a lower price? Possibly we are forgetting what quality means. It is a false economy to purchase several cheap look-a-like tools instead of tools designed and fabricated to last a lifetime. 

Are we also forgetting that “Made in America” means “Made in America by Americans?” Most of us understand that when products we are willing and capable of producing go off-shore our ability to produce is soon gone as well. Employment created by production is also gone. Gone. 

I challenge you to go to the mall or to that massive retailer famed for destroying the fabric of communities all across America and look for “Made in America” labels on the products there. That label is increasingly difficult to find; perhaps soon as difficult to find as a good job. I ask you, where will your children find meaningful employment with adequate compensation when all of the jobs are off-shore? 

If my read on the effects of off-shore production are accurate we may soon have an economy equal to that of third world countries. We, too, can look forward to living in cardboard boxes and earning fifty cents a day. An exaggeration perhaps, but I have lived in China and I would not wish their lot on my fellow Americans. 

The paragraph above was written when this article was first published in 1999, given the economic conditions in the U.S. in 2008 it seems a little prophetic doesn’t it?
What can we do? We can buy products produced by people you may know, your friends and neighbors, people who care about what they do and how what they do affects others. People who stand behind what they do and seek your satisfaction. You may pay a little more but you will receive so much more. Please buy American.

There is some good news with all of this. Now, after several years, many of my customers and the mason’s have discovered the poor quality of the off shore imitation tools and are returning for the quality, durability and service provided by a Made in the U.S of A. company.  The Hubbard Jointer Company is now producing more tools than we were when the imitations came on the market.  We are also hearing from customers how important buying American made products is to many people. The Hubbard Jointer Company is here to stay.

Ric Hubbard President
Hubbard Jointers, Inc.