HELPFUL HINTS AND HANDY LINKS
IMPORTANT GJ REFERENCE THREADS
Alphabetical List of Manufacturers (and Brands) of Hand Tools
Guide to Logos, Trademarks, etc
GJ’s QUICKIE COMMON COLLECTORS' TIPS
Markings on tools, packaging, etc
- The Registered Trademark Symbol (an “R” in a circle) was established in 1946
- Area Codes were established in 1947
- Postal Codes (2-digit numbers) were established in 1943
- Zip Codes (5-digit numbers which embed older 2-digit Postal Codes) were established 1963
- 'WEAR SAFETY GOGGLES' is an OSHA requirement and the striking tool can be no earlier than 1970
Government stock numbers
- Any marking that looks like this (41-S-1076, 38-B-3345, 13-O-1530, etc), sometimes with a prefix (e.g., N41-S-1076), is a phonetic Federal Standard Stock Catalog number, often called the first Federal Stock Number, and it dates from 1934 to 1952. Administered by the Treasury Dept.-
- Any marking with or without a "DA" or some other prefix or no prefix and an 11-digit number (in groups separated by hyphens, don't count the hyphens, e.g., 5180-698-7964) is a Federal Stock Number (FSN) dating from 1953 to 1961.
- Any marking with a "DSA" and an 11-digit FSN is from 1962 to 1974.
- Any marking with a "DSA" and a 13-digit FSN, adding "00" into the old FSN for a COO code placeholder, is from 1974 to 1977.
- Any marking with or without a "DLA" (Defense Logistics Agency) and a 13-digit NSN (and much more likely to actual have country codes (NATO, very contemporary, not vintage) is from 1978 on.
Phillips Licenses
LIC-1: Stanley, Blue-Point
LIC-2: IRWIN, Apex
LIC-3:
LIC-4:
LIC-5:
LIC-6: Vlchek
LIC-7: BHM
LIC-8: Bonney
LIC-9: Vaco
Strange size markings
Fractional size markings on end wrenches accompanied by “U.S.S.”, “A.L.A.M.”, “S.A.E.”, or a hex symbol and a “C” are nut and bolt sizes, not milled openings sizes, followed by their standard (United States Standard, Association of Licensed Automobile Manufacturers, Society of Automotive Engineers, and Hex Cap). See any wrench chart in any vintage catalog or
Machinery’s Handbook for the milled opening sizes. Wrenches with nut and bolt sizes and standards markings were typically made in the ‘Teens and 20’s, but can be found as late as the 1940’s in some cases.
/32nds
- Antique pressed steel socket wrenches in a broad range of /32nds sizes (3/32" to 1-9/32", in /32nds) are typically oversized to accommodate crude hardware manufacturing standards.
- Vintage end and socket wrenches in /32nds sizes are
not. They are
not metric equivalents or made for tamper-proof fasteners, either, to name a few of the most common misconceptions.
* Most correspond to U.S.S. nuts and bolts, which had heads that were exactly 1-1/2 x the diameter of the bolt + 1/8", which results in them being 1/16” or 1/8” wider in Across-the-Flats O.D. than S.A.E. nuts and bolts
of the same thread size.
* Wrenches in /32nds sizes were made from the advent of U.S.S. nuts and bolts in the 1800’s right through the Unified Thread Standard in 1948.
* Some /32nds sizes lasted well into the 1950’s to accommodate special applications on very common and popular cars in the late 1930s.
Good summary of all of the above
here.
Patent Numbers
- If your tool has a patent number, you may find and view the full patent using
this official US Patent and Trademark Office website search tool. If it has a "D" prefix or has fewer digits than patent numbers of the same era it is a Design Patent and you have to follow the correct format using the same USPTO search function. Your tool could not have been made before the date the patent was granted and the patent number was assigned.
- The numerals 3, 8, and 9 are often hard to decipher.
- If your patent number does not show up in the USPTO, it's either a foreign patent, or a trademark. Mfgrs sometimes marked tools with "PAT." or "REG.PAT.OFC." or something similar, but they were referring to the TM branch. See below.
- The
Directory of American Tool and Machinery Patents is also an excellent resource for collectors. You may search their database by patent number or patent date. You may also Google “DATAMP [mfgr’s name]”
-
Google Patents is also a good resource for hand tool patent information and it includes foreign patents.
No Patent Number? No problem!
If your tool has just a patent date or a patent date and a name (either of the patentee or a mfgr), try Google and Google Books.
If Google and Google Books are stumped, here are the steps to search for the patent.
(1) Google "Annual Report of the Commissioner of Patents for the Year [YYYY]"
(2) Click on the link that results and it will take you to a digital online copy of the patents report for that year in the Smithsonian Libraries system.
(3) If you have a manufacturer's name, use the alphabetical index of patentees to find it. That is in the beginning of the document. If the patent has been assigned (if the mfgr is not the patentee), it will cite the assignor's name. Use the same index to find it.
(4) If you don't have a mfgr's name, use the alphabetical index of inventions or designs, by name, to find it. That is at the end of the document.
(5) As a last resort, you may use the magnifying glass search function. Be as specific as possible. Trying the index of inventions or designs by any and all possible descriptions is your best bet. If you have to use the search function, down below it will post blue teardrop-shaped bookmarks indicating the pages in the report for that year that contain your search term.
(6) Click on the blue bookmarks
(7) The search term will be highlighted on the page in yellow.
Trademarks
- You can use the USPTO site (linked just above in the Patent section) to search for trademarked names found on tools, and, if you find a TM registration or certificate number through research, use the
USPTO’s Trademark Status and Document Retrieval engine to see the original application, including what products it includes, and date of first use.
- Another decent resource is
Trademarkia.
Other numbers
Other numbers on end wrenches are either model numbers (e.g., XS-2024), industry standard numbers (e.g., 27-C), some hybrid of a model and industry standard number (e.g., 1027-C), and in some instances, forge (die, mold) numbers.
WWI and WWII
- Generally, tools made between 1942 to 1945 are not plated. Wartime finishes include natural steel, cadmium, phosphates, oxides, enamel, and japanning. Generally, wartime tools will also have no alloy markings (e.g., Nickel, Chromium, Molybdenum, Vanadium), although they lingered into 1942.
- Martial "U.S." markings during WWI generally had serifs; WWII were generally sans serif.
CATALOGS AND OTHER REFERENCES
You’ll find many catalogs and catalog page scans or excerpts scattered around GJ. Unfortunately, they are not in a central location. You have to search or use the Index found at the beginning of this ReadMe to find a thread for a particular OEM. Click on the thread and then use the ‘Search' tool to search the thread on the term ‘catalog’ or ‘ad’ or ‘advertisement’, or ‘1942 catalog’, for example, etc, or, if you know the number of the specific catalog you are interested in, e.g., ‘Catalog 19-A’, and it will return a list of posts in that thread where only those terms are mentioned. Many of those posts will be queries for catalogs or citations of catalogs. But many will have scans of actual catalog pages or trade journal or magazine advertisements.
- An excellent free resource is the
Inter Archive International Tool Catalog Library, linked
here.
- The
old free Rose Tools Scanned Catalog Library (including Belknap, Bonney, BHM, Craftsman, Goodell-Pratt, Lufkin, Millers Falls, PEXTO, S-K, Stanley, and Williams, among others) has been picked up and is
now generously hosted by Blackburn Tools, linked
here.
- GJ member twertsy has a thread for
old machinery catalogs, linked
here.
- There’s a
‘Catalogs’ thread on G503.com (Military vehicles and tools site) that has a compendium of links to other threads on G503.com where scans of WWII era catalogs have been posted by members there, including Barcalo, Bonney, Cornwell, Duro, Fairmount, Herbrand, New Britain, OTC, Williams and PWA and Wright Aircraft documents, linked
here.
- GJ member four.cycle generously created a thread for all the
Indestro ads he has collected on the open internet, linked
here.
-
Some Plomb catalogs can be found on the Bartlett Street site, linked
here.
- Finally, the
Collecting Snap-on website, linked
here includes every catalog between 1925 and 1990.
(Check back often. I will add to this compendium of links as new resources are discovered.)
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