The Tool You “Borrowed” and Never Gave Back - Now It’s Legacy

[NurnbergIronGirl]

So my first post, other than intro so hopefully I put it in the right section.

Was going through my tool pile tonight and figured I’d share a little origin story from the vintage section.

These locking pliers aren’t rare or collectible… but they’re special to me. This was my very first tool, and yes, I “borrowed” it from my dad back in the mid-80s and never returned it.

I remember him showing me how they worked. He was always having me help work on cars with him. Just a simple dad moment. “See how they lock? They’ll grab anything.” He was just pointing out a neat tool… but in my kid brain it landed like a revelation. It felt like the holy grail of tools. Adjustable. Mean pit-bull bite. Clamp down and don’t let go. It turned your hand into a vise, and that totally blew my mind.

Around that same time he got me my first real skateboard, a pro G&S deck. I didn’t even know what G&S was and he’s explaining surf history while I’m just excited to skate on a pro board. But out riding, something was always loosening up: deck screws, truck nuts, hardware getting chewed up.

I didn’t own a skate tool yet… so I carried these.

Grip tape session? I had the pliers.
Swapping trucks? I had the pliers.
Stripped hardware? I was the girl they called.

Somehow I became the skater chick with locking pliers in her back pocket.

Fast forward almost 40 years, I’ve got five or six pairs different sizes brands now, but 90% of the time I still grab this set. Unless I’m need them to get off something gnarly. Funny thing is I never even looked at the stamp until today when I cleaned them up for a picture. Turns out they’re marked Bonney U.S.A. — P-100 I think.

Kind of fitting that the tool I “stole” as a kid ended up being an old American-made piece from a company that’s long gone from what I looked up.

I’m guessing most of us have that one tool “the intro-to-tools tool” that still wins out over the newer stuff. What was yours?

And if anyone knows anything interesting about the maker or the P-100 marking, I’d love to learn. I’m a sucker for the story… The story is what makes it history.

 

[whateg01]

There a thread with a lot of bonney info.

Spreading the Bonney affliction!

A member messaged me and complained (i.e. thanked me) about how I got him "addicted" to Bonney tools. I said I was sorry (not). So, I thought I'd help spread the Bonney bug around some more.:D Here's my set of long DBE's in metric, satin combos in SAE, and a trio of rats.

www.garagejournal.com

 

[Private Lugnutz]

So my first post, other than intro

Welcome to GJ!

...so hopefully I put it in the right section.

You did. Those are 'tweeners, not older vintage, but not exactly modern, either.

Somehow I became the skater chick with locking pliers in her back pocket.

This is a cool backstory!

And if anyone knows anything interesting about the maker or the P-100 marking, I’d love to learn. I’m a sucker for the story…

Bonney is a revered brand by many members who hang out down here on the vintage board, including me. (I was born and raised in their backyard.)



But they are not the OEM. Bonney, like many of the old wrenching guard (Williams, Plomb, Snap-on, etc), did not make their own regular pliers, let alone special locking plier-wrench type pliers.

We actually had a conversation about these on the Bonney thread not too long ago. If you click on my name in this quote it will take you right to it...

Hard to say who made them. Unaiu has the B-100 (7" OAL), and, like yours, it also has what appears to be an H.T. Jones design quick release lever. That was patented in 1950. He licensed it to multiple OEMs. However, the first time Petersen used it on a "Vise-Grip" was 1957, and, the B-100 and B-102 "Plier Wrench" (Bonney's name for them) in the 1957 Bonney catalog do NOT have quick release levers. The first Bonney catalog I can find where the B-100 and B-102 have quick-release levers is 1963.

Ironically, the only other locking plier-wrench type hand tool I have ever seen with the dramatically swooping lever and spooned quick-release lever is a GRIP-ALL that Don (d42jeep) just posted to my Lugzsonian thread. I don't know who made the Bonneys, but whoever it was, also made the GRIP-ALL. They are identical. (Ignore the bolt in Don's - it's not original.)

None of that in any way diminishes the significance of the tool to your identity!

 

[Private Lugnutz]

One of the first things you'll notice about the forum, like most forums, is that it moves very quickly. Threads you just read today will vanish (move to page 2, and so forth) overnight. To find older, inactive threads - especially helpful to newcomers who may not know that a topic already has an old, long thread, there is an A-Z Index of Threads in the "Stickie" titled 'READ B4 POSTING!' at the very top of this forum.

In reply to your thread idea...

I’m guessing most of us have that one tool “the intro-to-tools tool” that still wins out over the newer stuff. What was yours?

Vlchek 1/4" nutdriver!

In the "Patience is a virtue!" category, I have had an orphan No. ND-16 (1/4") for a long, long time. It was my dad's!

I'm still trying to re-complete his set.

 

[d42jeep]

My story is from a different perspective. Many years ago I was gifted a Snap-on ratcheting screwdriver from my old partner (and current neighbor) who was working as an executive at Toyota headquarters in Torrence, CA. Apparently the screwdrivers were a Toyota promotional item.
It quickly became one of my favorite tools and after my daughter grew up and moved away I often was called on to help with home improvements. I brought the screwdriver with me and left it at her house where I had been using it on a project. When I mentioned that I needed it back some months later, she told me that it had become one of her favorite tools as well. Eventually I realized that I wasn’t ever going to get it back and found some replacements at the estate and garage sales I frequent. Even now after years of her taking ownership of the screwdriver she mentions it occasionally. I figure down the road whenever she has a project that she uses it on she might think of her dad.
-Don

 

[Bustrrosodd]

So my first post, other than intro so hopefully I put it in the right section.

Was going through my tool pile tonight and figured I’d share a little origin story from the vintage section.

These locking pliers aren’t rare or collectible… but they’re special to me. This was my very first tool, and yes, I “borrowed” it from my dad back in the mid-80s and never returned it.

I remember him showing me how they worked. He was always having me help work on cars with him. Just a simple dad moment. “See how they lock? They’ll grab anything.” He was just pointing out a neat tool… but in my kid brain it landed like a revelation. It felt like the holy grail of tools. Adjustable. Mean pit-bull bite. Clamp down and don’t let go. It turned your hand into a vise, and that totally blew my mind.

Around that same time he got me my first real skateboard, a pro G&S deck. I didn’t even know what G&S was and he’s explaining surf history while I’m just excited to skate on a pro board. But out riding, something was always loosening up: deck screws, truck nuts, hardware getting chewed up.

I didn’t own a skate tool yet… so I carried these.

Grip tape session? I had the pliers.
Swapping trucks? I had the pliers.
Stripped hardware? I was the girl they called.

Somehow I became the skater chick with locking pliers in her back pocket.

Fast forward almost 40 years, I’ve got five or six pairs different sizes brands now, but 90% of the time I still grab this set. Unless I’m need them to get off something gnarly. Funny thing is I never even looked at the stamp until today when I cleaned them up for a picture. Turns out they’re marked Bonney U.S.A. — P-100 I think.

Kind of fitting that the tool I “stole” as a kid ended up being an old American-made piece from a company that’s long gone from what I looked up.

I’m guessing most of us have that one tool “the intro-to-tools tool” that still wins out over the newer stuff. What was yours?

And if anyone knows anything interesting about the maker or the P-100 marking, I’d love to learn. I’m a sucker for the story… The story is what makes it history.

Terrific story!