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Aaaaand here's another Lawson offset pipe wrench, 8-inches in size. The stampings, which are clear, suggest that it was made pre-U.S Hame (and thus pre-Fairmount). The Pat date says December 14 - 20, presumably 1920, and it adds "Other pat pend". (The background is an article in the 1942 book...

Looking around at the (small) amount of Gray Tool presence on GJ, this looks like the better of two threads to post this S-handle wrench. (if there are others more appropriate, let me know.) Don't know the age, and the online tool catalogues for Gray start at 1941 as Gray-Bonney. This guy looks...

Also, I expect that a faithful copy of 1950s Craftsman (?) as this appears to be, would get a lot of bangs and knocks in the PRC. Frankly, Japanese items used to have a deserved terrible reputation; today that's China. The thing is, dealers go to Chinese manufacturers for, as Eric Brown says...

My thought is the same.

Two 12-inch railroad-stamped monkey wrenches: the top one is marked "M&StPRR" for the Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad, which operated under that name from 1867 to 1874. The lower wrench is from the Milwaukee & St. Paul's successor: the Chicago, Milwaukee, & St. Paul, which operated 1874 to 1928...

I have also had luck using lighter fluid (Ronsonol as it happens) as the penetrating agent. However this was getting stuck pliers loose enough to work by hand.

Good to know. Menards is closer to me — walking distance even — but O'Reilly's is national.

They do move things but when that's happened to me, I can usually find an older person who looks like they're worked there for a while and ask. And I agree about Ace — but it needs to be a big one, and well lit. With older guys on staff....

Depends on the store, but I have a rule of thumb never to ask the staff a question unless the person appears older than half my age. The corollary is: learn your way around the store. And whatever it's worth, in my area (SE Wisconsin) stores rank in descending order: Menards first, Lowes...

Can you see any imprint on the other side?

Don, I have one of those "Champion" hand-grinders too. As found mine has a usable grinding wheel, but was missing the tool rest and the cap on the oil hole for the gear. I plugged the oil hole with a 1" length of bamboo chopstick whittled to fit, and the tool rest is a strip of not-very-stiff...

Where I live, there are five ReStores each within half an hour's drive of home. One of them's so-so, the others are pretty good, but not predictably so. Thus like all these places, you have to hit them relatively frequently to get the bargains. (Helps if you're retired.) And I've seen from...

Is a mag strip good for holding files that have worked on iron/steel? What happens to the metal bits that aren't removed by carding after the filing is over?

I have a Pritzlaff steel square, but it's really basic. Measures 24x12 inches by 1/8ths. No other markings, except for an asterisk under the Pritzlaff name. By the way, the Pritzlaff building in Milwaukee, which reflects the company's size, has been rehabbed into the Pritzlaff Lofts. Better...

Company-branded giveaways have definitely come down in the world. I have a Starrett 320 rule — a tempered #10 (32nds & 64ths), 6 inches long — that the Kempsmith Manufacturing Co. had engraved with its name plus Milwaukee, Wis. U.S.A. and PLAIN AND UNIVERSAL MILLERS on the rule's blank verso...

Lugz, I have an Osborne upholster's hammer which was in the household tool bin long ago enough that it has paint on the handle from a gas-powered model airplane I built back in, oh, 8th grade (?). No, that model never had any upholstery on it — but the Osborne was a small hammer on the...

Craftsman is/was a brand, with tools made by others. It doesn't seem crazy to me that Channellock made your Craftsman pliers, but may have refused to allow the use of their own trademarked blue plastic handle covers. They trademarked that color as "Channellock Blue" in 1988, according to...

DuckBuster: Possibly heat-shrink tubing on the handles?

Yes, indeed. However, Starrett rule heads, even when unmarked, can be ID'd: they are distinctive if you have seen several from different eras. The knurled doube-ridge lock nut for example, is definitive, as is the "woven" appearance of the head's sides on examples that are (???) pre-WW2. See...

Also, a combo square rule from one era (or even maker) can be swapped into the head from another. I've swapped Union, Brown & Sharpe, and Starrett parts from time to time. If it fits, locks up, and is square — good enough for me.