Yes, tools that people in later generations would find utterly unremarkable—pliers, wrenches, and the like—had to be custom-made in this era.
Not only were they expensive, but if a technician wanted tools that fit his hand, he would probably have to forge them alongside the blacksmith. That would take at least ten days or so.
As for why blacksmith shops did not mass-produce them?
Because every technician had different habits, and mass-produced tools would most likely go unsold.
Take the simplest example: a wrench. In most countries, every company used its own screw specifications. What size opening were you supposed to make the wrench? Moreover, some screws had hexagonal heads while others had triangular heads; they could not be used interchangeably at all.
Thus, technicians could only place custom orders, drawing up the wrench designs and handing them to the blacksmith before the latter could begin work.
Historically, the United States had copied large numbers of United Kingdom machines, but because it lacked the accompanying tools, many of those machines could not be put into use even after they had been built.
But France was entirely different.
France had unified its standards of measurement and implemented standardized industrial production for many years. From production standards to tool standards, it had complete sets of specification documents.
Take pliers, for example.
There were flat-nose pliers, bent-nose pliers, and needle-nose pliers. Everything from materials to manufacturing processes followed strict standards. They were divided into twenty specifications, from M1 to M20, increasing in size in sequence and meeting every production need.
Blacksmith shops merely needed to manufacture according to the standards issued by the government, secure in the knowledge that technicians would come to buy them—factories also used standardized production, and technicians had to use standard tools.
Did some technician want to use square-headed