I just posted this on the GG site, and thought I should post it here as well:
First I wanted to compliment lauver for compiling what is to me a most remarkable work of this mfr code list. You have my gratitude, and my awe.
I wanted to comment on two mfr codes, the LC and the BF. I saw that in the original list, LC was assigned to Danielson, then later revised in an update to "Probably Lectrolite Corp., ca. ? - 1964." Folks frequenting the Vintage Tool section over at GJ know about my extensive research on Lectrolite Corp (LC) with added emphasis on both the Sears and the S-K connection. When I began this project, I discovered that few paid much attention to this mfr, being perceived almost as a poor ugly stepchild or 'also-ran' when compared with the big brands, or like "Oh yeah, then there were these guys with the weird name who also made some tools." I had my work cut out for me, especially in the face of almost no catalogs to reference. So I thought I should share what I discovered to perhaps help refine this LC entry with better dating and to eliminate the question mark. I don't have the time or space to reproduce all the photos and documentation I came across, so I'll stick with this written account. I also want to be as thorough as possible to back-up the integrity of my findings.
Lectrolite's main focus was on electric heaters and other electrical appliances and devices, hence the odd name. It got into the tool business through its 1932 merger with Milwaukee Tool & Forge. LC did not make a full line of tools, concentrating primarily on various end wrenches (the 1953 partnership with S-K gave them access to socket sets and the like). The LC-sourced tools were made in its Defiance OH plant. Before and during the war, LC produced a mish-mash of designs and branding having several shank and panel geometries, sometimes marking budget tools with its top-tier name and vice versa. Sometime after the war--I suspect 1947--LC consolidated its end wrenches into two distinct designs: the raised panel LECTROLITE as its flagship line and its recessed panel TruFit budget line, the design of each remaining consistent throughout its post-war production.
We all know that the Raised Panel premium wrenches became "S-K LECTROLITE" about 1953. The recessed panel TruFit remained as a 'pure' LC brand. What's important here is that LC began to make many, many contract wrenches for other brands in the TruFit design, some bearing another brand name, some having no brand name at all to be sold by any retailer that may or may not have added its own branded packaging. All these varieties can be compared side by side to a TruFit marked wrench and are found to be virtually identical. Some of the contract wrenches can be found with a forged-in "LC" code. This and what follows is solid proof that the LC is a bona fide mfr code and not intended as something else.
Here's where the Sears connection emerges. Starting sometime during the late 1940s through the first half of the 1950s, LC began making TruFit design wrenches for Sears under the DUNLAP name. Many of these wrenches can be found to have the identcal "LC" forged mark as other contract wrenches. Around 1958, Sears, dropped the Dunlap name on these end wrenches and started having them marked with the plain SEARS name. The wrenches were otherwise identical to the Dunlap/TruFit, and still bore the LC code.
As an interesting sidebar, during this period LC was also making adjustable wrenches for Craftsman having the double line logo along with other makers like Williams and Danielson. Though much less common than its counterparts from other mfrs, they are identified by the forged LC initials. The design is virtually identical to the period S-K adjustable, which were also being made for S-K out of the LC Defiance plant.
In 1962, Symington-Wayne bought out both S-K and Lectrolite. The tools became marked as S-K WAYNE, including the end wrenches. To the best of my knowledge based on all the evidence I've been able to collect, the following took place:
Wayne killed the Lectrolite name and discontinued the production of the recessed panel TruFit design. Other contract tools were still being made out of the Defiance plant, but no longer bore any reference to Lectrolite, nor any more TruFit style wrenches.
This left Sears in a spot. Around 1963-64, the first recessed panel SEARS branded wrenches bearing the BF JAPAN mark appeared. These wrenches are an exact counterfeit of the LC TruFit design. I can only imagine that Wayne, in consideration of having pulled the rug out from under Sears on these wrenches, gave it the nod to bootleg them from whatever source it could fine, or perhaps had no legal recourse concerning a design that was not patented. I think this the 'official' beginning of the BF JAPAN era. The relationship apparently worked out well, for throughout the 1960s more and more Sears tools began to bear the BF JAPAN mark including some bench vises. To my knowledge, BF JAPAN persisted through to the early 1980s, after which Asian production moved to Taiwan, then ultimately China.
Based on all this, here are my suggested amendments:
1. The LC code is definitely Lectrolite Corp
2. The LC mark began appearing on Sears tools, whether branded DUNLAP, SEARS, or CRAFTSMAN sometime between 1947 and the first half of the 1950s
3. The LC mark on Sears tools disappeared in 1962, perhaps persisting as long as 1964 to accommodate remaining NOS
4. The BF JAPAN mark started to appear around 1963-64, and continued to be used until the early 1980s.
If anyone has additional info or artifacts that can be assigned a precise dating, either that can help verify, amend or contradict these conclusions, please share it.
