Brands

Where each maker spends its effort, and where it saves

Almost every house here is strong in one corner of its range and ordinary across the rest — a maker that builds a solid steel deck may hang a blade on it drilled to a pattern nobody else reproduces. These pages say which corner, what it costs to stay inside one maker’s spares once only its own blades and catchers fit, and which apparently separate brands turn out to be one factory wearing two labels.