Spezial Werkzeugfabrik Feuerbach D.R.P. Socket Sets

[Private Lugnutz]

Here is a high res scan of the original decal:

View media item 85130
Here is one enhancement:

View media item 85131
Here is another (this is the one I used, then darkened with stain):

View media item 85132

 

[Private Lugnutz]

Wrenchguy sent me a link to an interesting thread on Papaw's Workbench, provided here.

Typical guesswork on the logo and patent markings, and no new info for us, until the last post.

According to the OP, his set has fractional imperial size markings. Unfortunately, the photos aren't visible (or at least not to me - perhaps you need to be registered?), and he only provided one of the sizes. I would guess his set was later than all of ours, with Wrenchguy's "D.R.P. ang" marked ratchet (essentially a German form of "PATENTS PENDING") being the earliest.

At a minimum, this info confirms our theories about export to imperial system markets based on the markings and instructions.

Again, per the OP, one of his sockets is marked 7/8" but measures 1-1/2" AF (Across-the-Flats), which would fit Whitworth hardware.

Unless his sockets are like ours, made with questionable precision to begin with, and showing signs of worn service openings. In that case, something close to a 1-1/2" opening would not be reasonable for an S.A.E. 7/8" bolt (which would take a 1-1/4" opening) or an Am. Std. bolt (which would take a 1-5/16" opening), but it's not a measurement that is out of the question for a U.S.S. 7/8" bolt (which would take a 1-7/16" opening). So, Whitworth, or perhaps U.S.S. applications. Not sure why so many of these would be showing up here in the states if it was Whitworth, but I'm not leaping to any conclusions just yet.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

Also worth noting, regardless if it's B.S.W. or U.S.S., I don't think I've ever seen sockets marked with nut and bolt sizes before. It was a common practice for open end wrenches in the antique era, sometimes in several standards, sometimes with the milled opening sizes, sometimes not. But I've never seen sockets marked that way.

These SWF sets are full of wonders.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

UPDATE:

I got Wrenchguy's 13/16" and 3/4" sockets in trade for my extra 1/2" socket. Now missing only the 15/16" and 11/16" sockets to complete this set. See Photo 1.

Wrenchguy was worried about the condition of the 3/4" socket, because of the crude broaching material at the bottom of the service opening, but two of my smaller sockets have the same leavings on the bottom, so it's actually very fitting. (As a side-note, ALL of my Bethlehem Spark Plug Company sockets, in every drive sizes, are like that.) See Photo 2.

 

[wrenchguy]

guys i got a extra 1" socket to trade for a 7/16", 3/8" or 5/16" one. thanks

 

[Private Lugnutz]

Look what I found floating around in the bottom of an oldtimer's wooden toolbox yesterday at a flea market with all the other 1920's and 1930's tools and special wrenches you see! (See Pic 1, dead center.)

No sign of the rest of the set.

It's going in the second set, which didn't have one! (Honestly, a few weeks ago I probably would've left this behind!)

 

[notlob]

I ran across this video on Youtube. Parts of it made me cringe, but worth watching.

 

[elidas]

Is he a member here?

 

[wrenchguy]

i left my mark. thanks 4 posting

 

[Private Lugnutz]

I ran across this video on Youtube. Parts of it made me cringe, but worth watching.

Thanks for posting this, notlob! Also, my apologies for the delayed reply. I was on a 3-week vacation abroad and I am only now trying to catch up on GJ reading.

So, I had to shut my eyes when he went to the grinder to remove all the original case hardening residue. And I found myself talking to the screen at his errors. Not sure how he could confuse the Deutsches Reichs Patente ("D.R.P.") stamp as the initials of the manufacturer when the manufacturer's name (Spezial Werkzeugfabrik Feuerbach) is clearly marked on his incredibly intact label, or how he could continually refer to the set as a "complete set" and a "fifteen piece set" when there are clearly seventeen (17) pieces shown on the diagram on the label, and he only has fifteen (15) of them. (He is missing one of the hex sockets and the special Spark Plug Socket.) I wish he had spent a lot less time worrying about removing the original manufacturing process finish and patina and a little more time carefully comparing his set to the diagram and detailed instructions for use.

Those foibles aside, however, his timely video turns out to be incredibly informative for our research!

First of all, we did not have the patent number. Good on him for finding it. It was patented (1,629,205) in the US on May 17, 1927 by Hans Distler, an assignor to SWF. And according to the US patent, it was first patented by Distler in Germany on December 20, 1924. Link to the diagram and the full patent on the USPTO site is here.

Secondly, we now have a full and clear view of the original label, which we were at some pains to decipher upthread using elidas's example. That gives us a much better idea of the contents, the intended use, and the name of the set, which I had erroneously guessed as "All-Inches." Turns out to be called the "All-In-One" set!

On the subject of the contents, every set I have seen so far (including mine) is apparently missing the Spark Plug Socket (#18 on the diagram, next to the screwdriver attachment) which fit into the end of the ratchet handle, which is provisioned with two previously unidentified slots, not into the hex drive opening on the ratchet.

I took some stills from the video...

 

[Private Lugnutz]

I have just acquired a new wrinkle in the Spezial Werkzeugfabrik Feuerbach (SWF) “ALL-IN-ONE” Socket Wrench saga!

GJ member four.cycle may not be posting on GJ as much as he used to, but he is still on the hunt in the usual places for instances of new vintage U.S. Manufacturers for his reference list, thread linked here. He is in an email chain with a few of us and he recently posted a link to an eBay sale for an Emil Schwarz Company socket set. His interest was in the name, which was new to him. (It was new to all of us.) He had no prior knowledge of the SWF socket sets, so I am glad I followed his link, recognizing it immediately.

The ratchet and sockets in this Emil Schwarz Company “ALL-IN-ONE” socket wrench set are identical to those patented by Hans Distler for SWF in 1924 in Germany (applied for in 1921) and here in the US in 1927 (1,629,205).

Even the format, the “ALL-IN-ONE” name and the basic directions on the label are the same!

However, the tools are not marked with the < SWF > logo or ”Made in Germany” like the other sets. Curiously they are not marked with an Emil Schwarz branding either, and they don’t have the German patent pending markings (e.g., D.R.P. angem., D.R.P. ang.) or the German patent marking (D.R.P.). There is a PAT. APPLD. FOR marking on the handle, partially machined over by a prior owner, but legible from the bottom half of the letters remaining, echoing the notice on the label reading Patents Applied For.

So who and what was Emil Schwarz?

It was a company located at 217 Illinois Street in Chicago incorporated with $150,000 ($2M in today’s economy) in August 1921 to "manufacture and deal in wrenches and tools"...

...and they were running the same ad for sales agents in newspapers across the country that year.

Here’s the peculiar part. I can’t find any other references for Emil Schwarz and I can’t find any other reference for any other tools they may have made at any time.

Schwarz was a German immigrant. My hunch is he was in cahoots with SWF. I think that the pending patents on the label and tool refer to the Distler/SWF application in Germany and that this is the earliest version of the SWF “ALL-IN-ONE” socket wrench set. At some point, the relationship between SWF and Emile Schwarz must have been severed, and SWF was selling the “ALL-IN-ONE” sets as export products with their own branding and the “D.R.P. ang.” (prior to 1924) and then “D.R.P.” patent markings (after 1924).

 

[Private Lugnutz]

According to the label, this smaller set is missing the screwdriver bit. Otherwise it's all there and I am thrilled that it includes the tommy bar!

One peculiarity is that the corners on the male drive tang have not been chamfered on one of the sockets. Another is that two of the sockets have the detent spring exposed in the base. Of the three sets I have, that is the first time I have seen that. I am guessing it's an artifact of an early manufacturing imperfection. See Pics 1, 2 & 3.

Family portrait Pics 4 & 5.

The lid on this box looks like it was split and repaired a long time ago. Pic 6.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

I'll have to walk back the "identical" on the 5-way ratchet. It is obviously of the same Distler design, it is obviously made by SWF, and it is darn near identical. But there are a few nuances. In all of the pics below, the ratchet in the Emil Schwarz set is on top. As you can see, it is a 1/2" longer than the later ratchets, it has a different knurling on the ratcheting direction switch (ring on head), the hinge button is smaller and more rounded, the holes for the hinge are chamfered/recessed, and the hinge elbow is peened. EDIT: I like the last two features and would've retained that moving forward if I was in charge!

 

[Charles P]

Resurrecting this thread in the hope of some help.
I have a full boxed set in the useful whitworth imperial size (well, useful over here for pre-war cars). The main ratchet has partially seized and only works in the much less useful counter-clockwise direction.
Has anybody succeeded in dismantling a ratchet head? I can see from the patent diagram how the ratchet should come apart but I'm stuck trying to remove the main handle from the swivel head to get at the machine screw that holds the ratchet together. Suggestions welcomed.
If I can't work it out I'll need to search for a substitute

 

[Private Lugnutz]

If I can't work it out I'll need to search for a substitute

I'm on the road, Charles, but I'll be home later today. I'll look closer at mine to see if I can help. I'll also double check my stash. I may have an orphan.

 

[Charles P]

I'm on the road, Charles, but I'll be home later today. I'll look closer at mine to see if I can help. I'll also double check my stash. I may have an orphan.

Thanks.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

Charles,

I can't offer any advice on taking it apart and I don't have the extra one that I thought I had. I was thinking of a different ratchet. Sorry.

Let me ask, though. Have you had the set for a long time and the ratchet only recently seized and stopped working in the clockwise direction? Or did you just acquire the set and ratchet? The reason I ask, and at the risk of insulting you, unintentionally, they are a bit tricky. You know that you have to hold the "socket" part in front of the knurled band still when you turn the knurled band to change direction, right?

 

[wrenchguy]

Me and my backyard videos. I recommend soaking it in some diesel for a few hours and rapping it hard on a block of wood.

 

[Charles P]

Charles,

I can't offer any advice on taking it apart and I don't have the extra one that I thought I had. I was thinking of a different ratchet. Sorry.

Let me ask, though. Have you had the set for a long time and the ratchet only recently seized and stopped working in the clockwise direction? Or did you just acquire the set and ratchet? The reason I ask, and at the risk of insulting you, unintentionally, they are a bit tricky. You know that you have to hold the "socket" part in front of the knurled band still when you turn the knurled band to change direction, right?

Thanks anyway.
I've had it about 25 years and it's not my everyday socket set so isn't in full time use (that's a 3/8 Britool one). A few years ago it started playing up. I put it to one side and left it and I've just got round to addressing the problem.
I'll try the diesel soak and percussive maintenance whilst also keeping an eye out for a replacement

Thanks

Charles

 

[Charles P]

Well, I've worked out how to take it apart. The trick is to realise that the button controlling the swivel head is screwed in. Hold that in the soft jaws of a vice and it all comes apart. You can then remove the central screw and get to the ratchet.
The problem with mine is wear in the end of the rather complex detent pins, so it's a case of looking for another.

 

[richard dole]

There was a set on ebay the other day. Turns out the auction ended now.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Antique-Ge...D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

Ebay has gotten stupid with their ended listings recently, making them tricky to view.

a couple of the pics from the listing, the box says AEG on it, but not sure if that is a company or what:

I have a spezial werkzeugfabrik feuerbach all in one wrench, it's a complete set.
I was wondering what it is worth.

 

[richard dole]

hmmm, 2 ratchets and only 5 sockets. somebody had extra components, this orphaned stuff must be out there.

I have a complete set of spezial werkzeugfabrik feuerbach all in one wrench.
I was wondering what they ae worth

 

[richard dole]

http://i2fg.org/member/iwf-institute-for-machine-tools-and-factory-management/

I have a complete set of spezial werkzeugfabrik feuerbach all in one wrench.
I was wondering what they are worth.

 

[wrenchguy]

I've given/sent my set to a collector acquaintance in Germany. Looking for 7/16", 3/8" & 5/16" sockets to help make his set more complete. Was there any larger than the 1"?
Still have 1" for trade.

 

[NYBODYMAN]

I picked this up at an estate sale yesterday morning. I had no idea what it was but it looked old and I liked it so I grabbed it quick. Got it and a few other tools for $4. @Private Lugnutz chimed in on the garage sale thread and dropped some knowledge on me. I'll never use it or try to complete the set so it'll just stay in the tool box for now until I get tired of looking at it. Very cool piece of history!

 

[four.cycle]

European Tool Makers

An article on various German tool companies and brands.

alloy-artifacts.org

He's having some difficulty trying to suss out what the contents would have been in the U.S. "All-in-One" version, and I am having trouble with that one using the search function because there is so much other "All-in-One" stuff in the way.

@wrenchguy asked "did the sizes go up higher than one inch?" in one of this posts - that remains a question yet unanswered. It seems reasonable to assume they did not, based on observations of sets posted here and the information on the labels posted, but that's still an assumption.

I wasn't aware he was expanding the site now to included European makers as well as Japanese.

 

[four.cycle]

Various Hand Tool Makers [Page 5]

Page 5 of a collection of tools from various hand tool makers.

alloy-artifacts.org