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With every turn of a screwdriver and step up a ladder, a master electrician from Virginia has inched his way closer to becoming an American Ninja Warrior.

A couple of weeks ago, we presented some eye-popping statistics about the shortage of Skilled Tradesman. Earlier this year, we were pleased to hear that targeted training and apprenticeship programs across the country were receiving $600 million in competitive grants to support tradesmen and apprentices.

If you follow the Klein Tools Facebook page, you might have noticed a post we made last week showing some pretty interesting information about Skilled Trade Workers. The post was about the ManpowerGroup’s 2014 survey on the hardest jobs to fill in the U.S. For the fifth year in a row, Skilled Trade Workers was at the top of their list.

If you are a glass half-full kind of person, this may seem like good news. A surplus in jobs! But the reality is, this is more of a glass half-empty situation, and it looks like it could get even worse.

Father’s Day is Sunday…this Sunday…as in 3 days away! For those of you who already have a gift, a card, or plans made, good for you. For those of us who haven’t (guilty!), or if you are a dad looking for ideas to give your procrastinating children, you have come to the right place.

US News & World Report came up with a good general list of Father’s Day gift ideas, but I’m going to help you out even more by giving you some specific suggestions based on their general suggestions. Here goes:

Have you seen the sleek design of our brand-new Electrician’s Insulated Tools? The slimmer handle design makes them more comfortable in your hand and easier to store in a tool pouch. Great features, for sure, but when you’re talking about insulated tools, the most important feature should be safety.

It seems like Old Man Winter has finally gone into his own hibernation (for now…). Although we’re all ready to thaw out after that brutal winter, the heat of summer can be brutal, too. That is the message behind OSHA’s “Water. Rest. Shade.” Campaign to Prevent Heat Illness in Outdoor Workers.

I was browsing Buzzfeed this week (a perfectly legitimate way to waste a couple of hours) and came across this handy list of things I didn’t know my iPhone could do. It got me thinking of our brand-new VDV Commander™. This Voice-Data-Video tester is only a couple inches larger than an iPhone, and also has a whole slew of features. In this case, these features are for anyone doing low-voltage work.

Our mission here at Klein is to make the best possible tools for electricians and professional tradespeople, but sometimes our tools find a profound purpose in the most unexpected of places. In the case of our Hi-Viz Diagonal Cutting Pliers, that place is underwater, and that purpose is of the life-saving kind.

Last week was a very exciting week here at Klein Tools… it was the Grand Opening of our 8th U.S. manufacturing facility!

On April 10th, we cut the “ribbon” at Klein Tools’ new Heat Treat facility in Mansfield, TX. This 60,000 square foot facility houses all the necessary equipment to, as the name suggests, heat treat Klein Wire Cutting and Stripping products (e.g. pliers, wire strippers). Of course, our ribbon was actually a Klein fiberglass fish tape and we used our high-leverage linesman pliers to do the cutting.

I’m always surprised by the random places I see Klein Tools products or Klein branded items.