Who Made NAPA Wrenches?

John in OH · Feb 22, 2013

I recently bought a set of NAPA Professional metric wrenches off eBay, series NDRM. They are very nice, full polish, wrenches made in good ole' USA and I was wondering if anyone knows who made them?

I don't thing NAPA sells them any longer and they are kind of short in length, but otherwise they sure are nice!

rusty65 · Feb 22, 2013

I think KD made the wrenches for napa.

toolstools · Feb 22, 2013

I remember someone saying new Britain or easco?

petty4243 · Feb 22, 2013

last I knew, Danaher was the forge

"In 1998 a metallurgist for the Danaher Corporation stated that Danaher makes all the sockets for Craftsman, Easco, Matco, Proto, Allen Wrench, NAPA, and K-D. He said all are made the same -- there is no difference between any of these sockets, in any way, except for the name. "

http://www.factsfacts.com/MyHomeRepair/wrenches.htm

oak_park · Feb 22, 2013

I have a set of them and they were made by Danaher for Napa.

Packard V8 · Feb 22, 2013

Since you didn't post a photo, are they the same as the K-D wrenches in this thread?

I learned from these that Dahner made them for NAPA, K-D, Allen and Easco. Very nice wrenches for the money.

jack vines

petty4243 · Feb 22, 2013

Packard V8 said:
Since you didn't post a photo, are they the same as the K-D wrenches in this thread?

I learned from these that Dahner made them for NAPA, K-D, Allen and Easco. Very nice wrenches for the money.

jack vines

must say, nice to see that made in usa at bottom of package and nice large usa on each wrench

baron405 · Feb 22, 2013

oak_park said:
I have a set of them and they were made by Danaher for Napa.

i used to work for great parts company for 5 years (company that owns napa)

danaher was the maker for the entire NHT (napa hand tools) line since late 90's... they just changed over to CarlYle (www.carlyletools.com) for commission reasons if i understood correctly. this happened mid 2012. both are great brands and have low failure rate.

John in OH · Feb 22, 2013

Packard V8 said:
Since you didn't post a photo, are they the same as the K-D wrenches in this thread?

I learned from these that Dahner made them for NAPA, K-D, Allen and Easco. Very nice wrenches for the money.

jack vines

Yeah, I should have posted a photo originally, but since I didn't then, I will now. And, yes, these NAPA wrenches sure look a lot like the KD's in Packard V8's photo. Replace the size fractions with metric sizes and replace the "KD" with "NAPA PROFESSIONAL" and it appears they are the same. The "U.S.A." appears identical.

I van putski · Feb 22, 2013

They are identical and are quality wrenches. I can post a pic of the kd and napa pros next to each other if anybody is interested.

lbgradwell · Feb 22, 2013

petty4243 said:
"In 1998 a metallurgist for the Danaher Corporation stated that Danaher makes all the sockets for Craftsman, Easco, Matco, Proto, Allen Wrench, NAPA, and K-D. He said all are made the same -- there is no difference between any of these sockets, in any way, except for the name. "

http://www.factsfacts.com/MyHomeRepair/wrenches.htm

Much of this original 1998 post (it was much longer) was accurate, but there are some glaring errors too.

Firstly, it should be obvious that Proto would not be part of this group!!!

And, equally obvious, there are clear differences between those other Danaher-produced brands apart from the stamped name! And that's just the appearance...

John in OH · Feb 22, 2013

lbgradwell said:
And, equally obvious, there are clear differences between those other Danaher-produced brands apart from the stamped name! And that's just the appearance...

Can you expand on this comment regarding differences?

kc-steve · Feb 22, 2013

John in OH said:
I recently bought a set of NAPA Professional metric wrenches off eBay, series NDRM. They are very nice, full polish, wrenches made in good ole' USA and I was wondering if anyone knows who made them?

I don't thing NAPA sells them any longer and they are kind of short in length, but otherwise they sure are nice!

New Britain's model number I think, but NAPA was also good about using the same model # for different manufacturers. New Britain was bought by Stanley in the 1980s . . . so unless we see some photos it is just a guess for anyone to say who made them.

Steve

jmm · Feb 22, 2013

Many years ago they used to make raised panel Napa wrenches down the road from me in Gastonia, NC at the Easco facility. This area is full of factory seconds (lots of first quality stuff, too for that matter) marked Easco, Craftsman, Napa, etc. Not sure if they did the full polish Napa wrenches. However, I do quite often see satin-finished non-raised panel Napa wrenches around here all the time. A possibility.

petty4243 · Feb 22, 2013

lbgradwell said:
Much of this original 1998 post (it was much longer) was accurate, but there are some glaring errors too.

Firstly, it should be obvious that Proto would not be part of this group!!!

And, equally obvious, there are clear differences between those other Danaher-produced brands apart from the stamped name! And that's just the appearance...

I did not proof read, was a direct quote from link I posted.... and quickest sorce of info i found... had known they did napa easco and craftsman myself as well as others.... curiousity killing me now though, who did make the proto wrenches and where?

Packard V8 · Feb 22, 2013

The pre-full-polish Easco wrenches are identical to the raised panel Craftsman. Obviously from the same forging die.

jack vines

Who Made NAPA Wrenches?

John in OH

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rusty65

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toolstools

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petty4243

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oak_park

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Packard V8

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petty4243

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baron405

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John in OH

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I van putski

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John in OH

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