The Vintage New Britain and Associated Thread!

[four.cycle]

Only the French.

Of course!
I found a couple of those and sent them off to a fellow collector in New Jersey.
The "Surpans" (make sure you have your lips extended out properly on that second syllable there.)
They were buried underneath that PLOMB body hammer that I sent down to you.
Go figure.

mais oui...


"Vana Lion" was one of the other monikers they used...

Peugeot / Peugeot Freres, Sochaux, France (originally Paris, France) / est. 1810 / "Surpans" "Vana-Lion" wrench / "sur pans" = "on the sides" / https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/threads/can-anyone-id-this-unique-mystery-wrench.100839/ / https://progress-is-fine.blogspot.com/2022/11/peugeot-brothers-surpans-wrench.html / https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/threads/peugeot-pliers.206910/ /

Considering their impact on and contributions to the automotive world, you'd think they'd be better recognized here, but we seem to have made it a custom to ignore the French. The guys who invented the bicycle. Go figure.

 

[Outlawmws]

Just a wild guess, but I'd bet dollars to donuts that over half the population's eyes will glaze over if you say the word "anachronism".

Now that is a dated comparison! Bought any doughnuts recently?

 

[RTM]

Now that is a dated comparison! Bought any doughnuts recently?

Like Blue Star donuts in the PDX area

https://order.toasttab.com/online/blue-star-sw-jefferson-1701-sw-jefferson-st?diningOption=takeout&locationSelected=true

 

[Private Lugnutz]

The most amusingly rewarding thing about doing that particular 'Curator's Corner' on wrenches with novel, oddly milled openings - most to achieve a ratchet-like action, some, such as the Puegoet Bros (also licensed to BKT in England) and Diebold for a better, non-marring grip - was discovering that it all started, as far as I could ascertain, in that hotbed of wrenching innovation: Orlando, Florida.

 

[ararat]

Here's my collection of Nut masters.

 

[Airmedic1]

Nice! Those look new! They aren’t low clearance though, are they?

 

[rust in the eye]

Like Blue Star donuts in the PDX area

https://order.toasttab.com/online/blue-star-sw-jefferson-1701-sw-jefferson-st?diningOption=takeout&locationSelected=true

Blue Chip might be a better name for THAT clip joint. Five bones for a donut? Blow me.

 

[ararat]

Nice! Those look new! They aren’t low clearance though, are they?

The Blackhawks don't look like they have been used. They are regular nut master wrenches, the French metrics are thinner, almost like tappet wrenches.

 

[Tom "Python" Aycock]

Ok, here I go again...

Swung by a friend of mine at his peddlers cart shop today. He sold me an unused 11pc 1/2" drive Proto socket set for $11. While I was gathering up the sockets he brings out an older vintage socket box and asks if I knew what it was. Nice old None Better 1/2" drive T 1200 series socket set. The box has room for 11 sockets and is 14 5/8" long and 2 11/16 deep. Nearest set I could find is the No. 6012 from the 1939 No. 39 catalog. This set is missing the T1216 1/2 and T1221 21/32 sockets and the S54 flex handle and S30 cross bar, but has a T1219 19/32 socket that isnt shown as part of the No. 6012 set. Nonetheless, my buddy gave me the set for free!

Yep, another NB set to ponder over and try to find the two missing sockets...I guess there are worse things in life, ha ha.

 

[four.cycle]

Nearest set I could find is the No. 6012 from the 1939 No. 39 catalog.

I just went through all my N/B stuff and I think you're on the right track.
The part numbers were changed in some hardware wholesalers' catalogs. (e.g., 612 = 6012 = 612S, etc.)
You might ask @d42jeep is he has any orphans to fill those holes - most all of my oddball NB went down to him (or @Etchase)

 

[d42jeep]

I have some spares but I think they are mostly New Britain rather than None Better.
-Don

 

[four.cycle]

^ there were a couple reasons I abandoned the attempts to "complete" partial N/B sets, that "New Britain"/"None Better" thing being one of them.

 

[Tom "Python" Aycock]

Ok, here I go again...

Swung by a friend of mine at his peddlers cart shop today. He sold me an unused 11pc 1/2" drive Proto socket set for $11. While I was gathering up the sockets he brings out an older vintage socket box and asks if I knew what it was. Nice old None Better 1/2" drive T 1200 series socket set. The box has room for 11 sockets and is 14 5/8" long and 2 11/16 deep. Nearest set I could find is the No. 6012 from the 1939 No. 39 catalog. This set is missing the T1216 1/2 and T1221 21/32 sockets and the S54 flex handle and S30 cross bar, but has a T1219 19/32 socket that isnt shown as part of the No. 6012 set. Nonetheless, my buddy gave me the set for free!

Yep, another NB set to ponder over and try to find the two missing sockets...I guess there are worse things in life, ha ha.

Update- T1216 1/2" has been found in my NB stash!

 

[d42jeep]

Here is a hex drive 9/16 socket found at a recent garage sale. It looks to be New Britain to me. I have little interest in hex drive tools.
-Don

 

[Private Lugnutz]

Picked up a rusty little NB-era Husky nut spinner set at the flea this morning. Cleaned up very well. The box is missing a lot of paint, and has some cancerous eyesores inside, but the tools are in good to very good condition. It had its full complement of sockets - 6-pointers (1/4" - 7/16") and 8-pointers (1/4", 5/16", 3/8"), H3600 thru H3608, and a H4598 6" flex handle that NB was putting in 10-pc sets, as well as 12- and 13-pc sets with Sliding Tee and Ratchet. I added a cross-bar from my cross-bar stash and I am calling it complete. (It was a zero sum exchange, because I gained the 3/8-inch drive crossbar that was in the box, now added to my stash.) The socketry is early enough to have the large single band of knurling, but late enough to have all 6-pointers (instead of 12-pointers), so I am estimating mid-40's, but not as late as 1947.

 

[four.cycle]

I have little interest in hex drive tools.

thanks.

orphans will find their way to North Carolina.

 

[d42jeep]

Perhaps I should have said MOST hex drive tools. There are definitely exceptions!


-Don