Vintage S-K Tools

r_olson_06 · Dec 14, 2019

I remember the one I had had a slight slant to it as well. I traded it off to Dewayne here.

Looking for the following Plomb Pebbles Wrench 3061

Private Lugnutz · Dec 14, 2019

r_olson_06 said:
And they have a whole bin of vintage spinners!?!

Not any more! :lol_hitti

No, seriously, at least 30 or so. All cruddy as hell. I had to ask for a rag to wipe them off to see the markings and sometimes I had to walk outside in the sunlight to see them better. So the one guy is dealing with a buying customer and another guy is dealing with a selling customer and there I am walking back and forth with spinners. Finally I just asked if I could take the whole bin outside. :lol:

The overwhelming majority were =CRAFTSMAN=.

r_olson_06 · Dec 14, 2019

Private Lugnutz said:
Not any more! [emoji38]_hitti

No, seriously, at least 30 or so. All cruddy as hell. I had to ask for a rag to wipe them off to see the markings and sometimes I had to walk outside in the sunlight to see them better. So the one guy is dealing with a buying customer and another guy is dealing with a selling customer and there I am walking back and forth with spinners. Finally I just asked if I could take the whole bin outside. [emoji38] The overwhelming majority were =CRAFTSMAN=.

Haha. I found a pawnshop in an undisclosed location. The first time I went in there they had a old 54" Snap on roller cab. I asked what is inside because it was locked. The guy running the place said SK. I opened the bottom drawer that is 12" X 40ish" and the thing is filled to the brim with SK sockets all 1/2" drive. There had to be over a 1000 sockets in that drawer alone. The drawer above that was about 8" tall was full to the brim with wrenches. The smaller drawer next to it had all screwdrivers. Well over 100 green and whites. I picked out all the decent spinners. 1 Wayne and 14 of the green and whites and brought them up. After a little haggling I walked out the 15 spinners for $25.

Looking for the following Plomb Pebbles Wrench 3061

Oldtuleguy · Dec 14, 2019

Undisclosed location? Sounds like a honey hole.

lardy1 · Dec 14, 2019

I got a green and white this past summer in a three for a dollar screwdriver box.

d42jeep · Dec 14, 2019

Private Lugnutz said:
I had thought about that (it wearing off) Roy, but the whole marking looks slightly slanted to me, too. I believe it was upright during the war. I moved my black oxide SK midget set on to another collector, so I don't have one to check. Perhaps Don can compare.

Here are some comparison pictures. The ones with the slanted letters are postwar. Some of mine came from Tin Medic and were probably immediate postwar repacks, judging from the traces of cosmoline I had to remove. The first two shots are the early ones, the next shot is a green and white. The last picture is of some early cad plated DBE wrenches I received in the mail today from Roy. Thanks, Roy!
-Don

bmwrd0 · Dec 14, 2019

I just checked, and my diamond set spinner has the slanted script. I hope that helps.

Private Lugnutz · Dec 14, 2019

Don,
The spinner in my black ox set had a marking like the spinner in your black ox set in post #1842. Which is not like the marking on the two you just showed, or the one I just found. That is the comparison I was referring to. But machts nichts. It's yours either way!

What's with the "green and white" SK stuff. That's later than my collecting niche. Is it hard to find? Or just popular? I think I have a stubby flat head.

d42jeep · Dec 14, 2019

Private Lugnutz said:
Don,
The spinner in my black ox set had a marking like the spinner in your black ox set in post #1842. Which is not like the marking on the two you just showed, or the one I just found. That is the comparison I was referring to. But machts nichts. It's yours either way!

What's with the "green and white" SK stuff. That's later than my collecting niche. Is it hard to find? Or just popular? I think I have a stubby flat head.

There are probably 20 green and white ones on eBay on any given day but they were all made after the S-K Wayne era. They are very common.
-Don

Private Lugnutz · Dec 14, 2019

Good, another whole era I don't have to bother with.

Oldtuleguy · Dec 15, 2019

Only older one I have come across has this script.

Private Lugnutz · Dec 15, 2019

Yeah, that's the marking that was on the BO spinner in my BO set. It's more upright. That set looks like unmolested and preserved cadmium, by the way. I don't know what else would give the steel that satin look in that era.

old_smokey · Dec 18, 2019

Just picked this 3/8 roto up for $10!

There is some chrome missing around the head but otherwise it’s in great shape. Smooth, nice and heavy. I had bought a 3/8 and 1/4 Husky roto from Home Depot last week on close out and this ratchet has got to be double the weight. It feels quality! It’s branded S-K Wayne putting it around 1960s.

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d42jeep · Dec 19, 2019

Private Lugnutz said:
Yeah, that's the marking that was on the BO spinner in my BO set. It's more upright. That set looks like unmolested and preserved cadmium, by the way. I don't know what else would give the steel that satin look in that era.

This discussion got me wondering about the spinners I have on hand so I dug most of them out today. I’ve got four of one and four of the others. All of the ones that appear to have started out black oxide have the upright font so I assume those are earlier. It’s hard to know when it changed to the angled font. The last two shots are of the spinners back in their fairly complete sets. The sets on the left are in progress.
-Don

d42jeep · Dec 19, 2019

I received these two cad plated wrenches from Roy in a trade. The Evaporust did them a lot of good. I added them to the others in the wartime S-K box and took some pictures of them all plus the spark plug sockets.
-Don

r_olson_06 · Dec 19, 2019

d42jeep said:
I received these two cad plated wrenches from Roy in a trade. The Evaporust did them a lot of good. I added them to the others in the wartime S-K box and took some pictures of them all plus the spark plug sockets.
-Don

Those turned out amazing.

Looking for the following Plomb Pebbles Wrench 3061

d42jeep · Dec 19, 2019

I was surprised at how good they came out. After I took the pictures, I dipped some of the more rusty ones I already had. I’m hoping that they will look better too.
-Don

gpw_42 · Dec 20, 2019

d42jeep said:
I received these two cad plated wrenches from Roy in a trade. The Evaporust did them a lot of good. I added them to the others in the wartime S-K box and took some pictures of them all plus the spark plug sockets.
-Don

Nice Longshanks! Glad they came out of the Evaporust so nice.

Thanks to you and Lugz for the education on the font of the SK spinners...amazing the number of tiny details out there to be mastered.

d42jeep · Dec 20, 2019

Thanks, Steve. I’ve been meaning to post these pictures of a little project I did over the summer. When I received the wartime box from Honza, it had a fairly small hole in the side. With the help of my neighbor and his MIG welder, we welded in a patch. It isn’t beautiful but it’s functional. Just ignore my neighbor’s old car in the background.
-Don

d42jeep · Dec 26, 2019

I normally don’t check tools for sale on Craigslist (other than Estate and Garage sales) but I happened upon this S-K Wayne 4 way lug wrench and the price was right. I picked it up from the seller this afternoon. It’s one of the few Wayne pieces I plan on hanging onto.
-Don

r_olson_06 · Dec 26, 2019

d42jeep said:
I normally don’t check tools for sale on Craigslist (other than Estate and Garage sales) but I happened upon this S-K Wayne 4 way lug wrench and the price was right. I picked it up from the seller this afternoon. It’s one of the few Wayne pieces I plan on hanging onto.
-Don

Nice Don,
I have never seen one of those before. I have a Craftsman that looks very similar. I wonder if SK made them or sourced them.

Looking for the following Plomb Pebbles Wrench 3061

Provincial · Dec 27, 2019

I have a Lectrolite that looks like it came from the same source.

d42jeep · Dec 27, 2019

That makes sense since both S-K and Lectrolite were bought out by Symington-Wayne in 1962. That leads me to believe that Lectrolite was probably the actual manufacturer since Wayne likely wouldn’t have continued a sourcing agreement from an outside supplier but it would have been easy to re-mark the Lectrolite made 4 way.
-Don

Private Lugnutz · Dec 27, 2019

It looks to me like Lectrolite was probably always S-K's source.

coleman10 · Dec 29, 2019

Anybody have a rough date range for this set? ‘50’s - ‘60’s?

Thanks.

d42jeep · Dec 29, 2019

Here is a page from the 1956 catalog along with the set I received earlier this month.
-Don

coleman10 · Dec 29, 2019

d42jeep said:
Here is a page from the 1956 catalog along with the set I received earlier this month.

-Don

Thanks! Interesting that they show the sockets facing the other direction.
What did this set sell for back in 1956?

Provincial · Dec 29, 2019

The advertising artist was trying to show the 12-point openings. The illustration had no connection to how the sockets were placed in production.

d42jeep · Dec 29, 2019

Here you go. Looks like $6.75 or $8.15 Canadian.
-Don

coleman10 · Dec 29, 2019

d42jeep said:
Here you go. Looks like $6.75 or $8.15 Canadian.

-Don

Thanks! That’s about $63 US today., close to a full week’s gross wages in 1956 ($73 median).

GalaxyRat · Jan 2, 2020

I found a nice 1/2" drive set at the flea market yesterday for $10. I already had the ratchet, but only a few random sockets. I finally have a set to use in my box full time!

7/16-15/16 including the oddball x/32 sockets

Sent from my SM-G973U using The Garage Journal mobile app

drivesitfar · Jan 2, 2020

ALL: since SK & Craftsman were my Dad's favorite tools I sort of inherited that thinking and i've got more than a few SK's laying around. once I get them sorted I'll take a few more pictures to post.

in the meantime I wanted to wish all of you TOOL GUYS a VERY HAPPY 2020 and I hope you all find some good old quality tools to bring home and use or just shine up and complete your collections.

Cheers

outofbounds · Jan 2, 2020

GalaxyRat said:
I found a nice 1/2" drive set at the flea market yesterday for $10. I already had the ratchet, but only a few random sockets. I finally have a set to use in my box full time!

7/16-15/16 including the oddball x/32 sockets

Sent from my SM-G973U using The Garage Journal mobile app

Great work in the scoring deals dept. Galaxy! You've got a keen eye for quality and apparently a deft touch in identifying motivated sellers too!

GalaxyRat · Jan 2, 2020

outofbounds said:
Great work in the scoring deals dept. Galaxy! You've got a keen eye for quality and apparently a deft touch in identifying motivated sellers too!

Thanks! I'm ready to get back out and make 2020 a great year for my tool collection.

Sent from my SM-G973U using The Garage Journal mobile app

d42jeep · Jan 12, 2020

My big S-K find at an estate sale yesterday was this large wartime carry box. Other than having a steel handle, it looks the same as this 4502C in the 1943 War Issue catalog so probably ‘44 or ‘45. The exterior has been repainted gray but at least it is a decent paint job although I doubt that it was done by the Navy. I decided to see how close I could come to duplicating the set in the catalog with wartime tools but I had to cheat by using postwar chrome extensions, speeder and sliding Tee. The last shot is of my two wartime carry boxes side by side.
-Don

d42jeep · Jan 12, 2020

I picked up this rusty S-K wartime set on eBay thinking that evaporust might take care of most of the ugliness. Here are the results. I poured evaporust in the bottom of the box and left it overnight. The cad plated sockets and rusty drive tools cleaned up pretty well.
-Don

Oldtuleguy · Jan 12, 2020

That cleaned up nice!

d42jeep · Jan 12, 2020

Thanks. It seems to do an especially nice job on the cad plated tools. I’m gradually going through some cad plated tools I’ve had for a while and cleaning them up.
-Don

RubiconJK · Jan 13, 2020

Nice looking SK goodies Don.

d42jeep · Jan 13, 2020

Thanks, Rube. I only found these two other S-K tools over the weekend. I’ve been looking for knurled 1/4” drive 7/32” and 3/16” S-K wartime sockets to complete sets with no success whatsoever. They have to be out there somewhere.
-Don

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