Lufkin Scribe find: in my own tool box!

[Outlawmws]

I was digging in one of two small drawers of chisels and punches (Good ones in one drawer beaters in the other...) a little bit ago and spotted this thing that didn't quite look like a normal punch. I look closer and it looks even less like a punch. Out comes the magnifier (I HATE needing Reading glasses...) and it is labeled near the top:

The Lufkin Rule Co.
Saginaw Mich.
Made in U.S.A.

I see it has what looks like a collet nut and it loosens, but the flat point pin wont budge. I remove the nut, and verify the tip is a collet, and put the pin into the vise. A quick pull and its a sharp needle like object! I realize (Finally) that this is a really high quality scribe for machine shop layout work!

I can't even remember exactly where I got it, except for a vague recollection that it must have been with a bunch of other stuff, from a yard/estate sale.

Kind of nice finding a gem in with the junk punches

 

[Larwyn]

They are handy to have around. I keep one in my pocket right next to my pocket knife, carry them both every day. Very few days go by that I do not use it for one thing or another. They are great for scribing lines, poking holes, probing decayed wood to determine the extent of the damage, etc. I even use mine as a small marlin spike on occasion.

 

[Zrexxer]

I've got two of those exact same Lufkin scribes that were in my grandfather's machinist chest. They're damn nice tools.

 

[rlitman]

It is a knockoff of a Starrett scribe. Very nice.

 

[jeffmoss26]

Nice find!! I love when I come across things in my collection that are actually old and unique. GJ has helped me with that

 

[Outlawmws]

It is a knockoff of a Starrett scribe. Very nice.

Or it could be the opposite. At one point Lufkin was the largest manufacturer of tape measures in the US. and started their precision tools segment in 1919, and sold that to Pratt & Whitney Machine Tools Division of Colt Industries in 66. Lufkin was closed in 1968 about a year after Cooper bought them....

I did find a catalog reference to the pocket scribe, and they also made pocket screwdrivers in the same body.

 

[91bronc300]

Here's the Starrett version. Whether the chicken or the Lufkin came first I don't know.

 

[Harvey Melvin Richards]

Here's my Milton. It actually says Starrett under the pocket clip. Lufkin was an innovator of many machinist tools. I believe I read in one of their catalogs that they were the first to manufacture the radius gauge. I also have lots of old Starrett, Lufkin and Brown & Sharpe tools that are virtually identical, but they don't have interchangeable parts.

 

[Sparkfarmer]

Starrett makes one with a steel tip and one with a carbide tip. I would assume the carbide tip is the newest version of this tool.

 

[bigcaddy]

I bought a number of the Starrett ones about a year ago in a large lot of machinist tools. I didn't know what they were at first but my old man did the second he saw them.

I ended up keeping 1 of each size for myself and letting my dad keep the rest. There were some other diamond tipped/carbide scribes in the box so he was extremely happy with his new toys