Certainly not Starrett quality at Harbor Freight prices. Except maybe a back-alley operation that deals in tools that have fallen off delivery trucks.
Not necessarily. But I want to understand what the higher end tools do differently than the lower end tools. And which tools are actually better.
For a non-professional like me, perhaps mid-priced tools would be good enough. I don't need extreme durability, and even extreme accuracy isn't all that necessary - for my purposes, short term precision and consistency is more important.
But if I go to places like Amazon and eBay, price sometimes doesn't reflect that sort of thing. I need some level of expertise from a store to figure out what brands and models do a reasonably good job. And a decent return policy if something doesn't work right.
E.g., for the most part, most hand tools from companies like Sears Craftsman will do what I need well enough, for woodworking. Sometimes thrift store and garage sale tools do too. Even sometimes the more expensive Harbor Freight tools.
But doing a reasonably good job of sharpening skate blades seems to require somewhat better tools than most things - fairly small defects can make a noticeable difference, and I wanted to measure how much metal I was taking off.