Britool (Made in England) thread
- Thread starter D350RDV
- Start date
Just found this thread, im a keen britool tool collector, and was keen to find out some more info on my Britool Aero 86A socket set..
Much to my delight, I found the info on this thread, in an 1949 catalog.
Boxed and seemingly unused, my best find so far!!
Much to my delight, I found the info on this thread, in an 1949 catalog.
Boxed and seemingly unused, my best find so far!!
fanders
Well-known member
Photos please! 
I also got in the deal, a ParX socket set of approximately the same age, as well as britool sockets boxed in what I assume is dealer packaging (4-5 per box in the same size), as well as two newer britool socket sets, and several as new Britool spanners. - will get more pictures!
fanders
Well-known member
Hello Rareims!
Sadly your pictures are not appearing in your posts for some reason. I've had success posting images to the Journal by uploading them to my 'Albums' area on the site and then posting the 'BB code' URL link directly into the body of the post.
Cheers, fanders
Sadly your pictures are not appearing in your posts for some reason. I've had success posting images to the Journal by uploading them to my 'Albums' area on the site and then posting the 'BB code' URL link directly into the body of the post.
Cheers, fanders
fanders
Well-known member
Time for some more Britool pictures, starting with a very old 1/2"-7/16" open jaw wrench. Marked 'British Made', and chrome vanadium rather than 'Chrome Alloy', with the MOD Broad Arrow mark, it must date from pre WW2. It was for sale on eBay, but I only buy old Britool tools I'll actually use, and I have plenty of SAE size wrenches already so I passed:
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fanders
Well-known member
I'm still surprised by the range of stuff Britool made, here is at least one engineer's square:
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Again, on eBay but I passed as I've plenty of squares already.
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Again, on eBay but I passed as I've plenty of squares already.
fanders
Well-known member
A nice Britool three-legged puller:
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fanders
Well-known member
And something a bit different - a 'Made in BRITOOL Sweden' 10" adjustable spanner, almost certainly a Bahco item rebranded as a Britool item.
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fanders
Well-known member
And one I did buy - a 'British Made' i.e. pre-about 1960 1/2" round head E77 ratchet. I'd never seen one of these and they aren't listed in either of my 1949 or 1963 Britool catalogues. The 20T ratchet action is really smooth, and will be a pleasure to use.
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Shown here with my two Britool E74s:
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Does anyone know when these E77s were produced? The English Patent 707,596 was assigned to 'British Tool and Engineering Company' and was filed in August 1950, so I guess around this time. The patent related to the ratchet mechanism used in the E77, pretty standard stuff today.
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Shown here with my two Britool E74s:
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Does anyone know when these E77s were produced? The English Patent 707,596 was assigned to 'British Tool and Engineering Company' and was filed in August 1950, so I guess around this time. The patent related to the ratchet mechanism used in the E77, pretty standard stuff today.
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fanders
Well-known member
Here's a 'Dwarf' D77, just for good measure. This one apparently has a one-way roller bearing clutch mechanism, allowing movement of less than 1 degree between actions:
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The RS website had a little more information on the D77s, including a couple of different patterns (both now long discontinued, the black handle one is much later than the hard handle version):
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If anyone has any Britool catalogue scans showing the E77 and D77 ratchets (& X77 others?), please post 'em up - would be interesting to see. None feature in the 1949/1963 catalogues I have.
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The RS website had a little more information on the D77s, including a couple of different patterns (both now long discontinued, the black handle one is much later than the hard handle version):
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If anyone has any Britool catalogue scans showing the E77 and D77 ratchets (& X77 others?), please post 'em up - would be interesting to see. None feature in the 1949/1963 catalogues I have.
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fanders
Well-known member
Here's a Britool D60 flex drive 1/4" socket driver currently on Ebay:
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I've never had much luck with flex drive stuff, it never seems strong enough to apply the necessary torque when you need it. Nice to see in old Britool though.
fanders
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I've never had much luck with flex drive stuff, it never seems strong enough to apply the necessary torque when you need it. Nice to see in old Britool though.
fanders
fanders
Well-known member
If anyone's interested there's another E77 for sale on UK eBay at the moment (I'm not, and have no connection to the seller!), nice condition and a slightly different head style to the one I have:
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fanders
Well-known member
I've read before that Britool tools marked with 'A' after the part number, i.e. RJM17A were import knock-offs produced on Britool tooling sometime post mid-1990s, after Britool had been sold to Facom then Stanley. They certainly lost the classic appearance and finish with these later tools, which I don't really consider being proper Britool although I'm sure they will get the job done.
I came across these 6RBM 'A' mini rings recently, which state 'Made in England' on the plastic tool roll:
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Here are my metric mini-rings, old Britool - they are the classic double box/ring end Britool pattern, with shinier chrome:
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I guess there was some UK production of these later Britool tools, but with changed tooling; unless Facom/Stanley were fibbing about the country of origin. Perhaps the plastic tool roll was 'Made in England'?
fanders
I came across these 6RBM 'A' mini rings recently, which state 'Made in England' on the plastic tool roll:
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Here are my metric mini-rings, old Britool - they are the classic double box/ring end Britool pattern, with shinier chrome:
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I guess there was some UK production of these later Britool tools, but with changed tooling; unless Facom/Stanley were fibbing about the country of origin. Perhaps the plastic tool roll was 'Made in England'?
fanders
fanders
Well-known member
One of the many tools Britool made were strap wrenches for removing oil filters and turning other large round objects. Here's a typical example:
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Ratchet.
Well-known member
have seen quite a few of these at a local steam fairs/ autojumble i go to here, not picked one up yet though... (always other interesting stuff to buy..) seem to remember also seeing draper branded ones...
nice ratchets there, particularly the e77, not got any britool ratchets so far, mainly as they tend to be in demand, and go for more then i want to pay.. (i can be kind of cheap haha)
fanders
Well-known member
Spline-broached combination spanner
Here's an unusual Britool combination spanner with an unusual fine-tooth spline broach in the ring end. The 'Z' prefix on the size means it was supplied to UK MOD, the spanner size is 3/8" Whitworth. Not seen anything like this before, and they're not in the Britool catalogues I have - must have been an MOD special:
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Here's an unusual Britool combination spanner with an unusual fine-tooth spline broach in the ring end. The 'Z' prefix on the size means it was supplied to UK MOD, the spanner size is 3/8" Whitworth. Not seen anything like this before, and they're not in the Britool catalogues I have - must have been an MOD special:
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dutchgray
Well-known member
You can still get spline tools like that from Stahlwille, no idea what they are actually for, it looks like the spline side is bigger than the open end, like they used the smallest blank they could get away with to have a thin box and the open end is just incendential.
Dave455
Well-known member
You see a lot of splined fittings like that in the aerospace industry so my guess is that's where this is from. Typically they are on things like jet engine pipe unions, though obviously not in this instance. Perhaps a sensor or suchlike using the same splines!
Didn't know about the 'Z' prefix, you learn something every day!
Didn't know about the 'Z' prefix, you learn something every day!
fanders
Well-known member
Here's an odd clamping tool, 'British made' by Britool i.e. pre ~1960 - any guesses as to the application?
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fanders
Well-known member
And another 'guess the use' old Britool item - some sort of adjuster thingy:
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fanders
Well-known member
Britool catalogues
I'm hoping to put together some information here on Britool catalogues, they are a great resource for Britool information. I personally have catalogues 96, 104 and 109 and am in the process of scanning 104 and 109 in. Once I've done that, I will put PDF copies of all three up on dropbox for download by anyone interested. If anyone owns other Britool catalogues, why don't you scan those in too and we can share? It would also be nice to have a post here with pictures of all the front covers on, so I'll reserve the next post for that. Here is what I have put together so far:
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fanders
I'm hoping to put together some information here on Britool catalogues, they are a great resource for Britool information. I personally have catalogues 96, 104 and 109 and am in the process of scanning 104 and 109 in. Once I've done that, I will put PDF copies of all three up on dropbox for download by anyone interested. If anyone owns other Britool catalogues, why don't you scan those in too and we can share? It would also be nice to have a post here with pictures of all the front covers on, so I'll reserve the next post for that. Here is what I have put together so far:
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fanders
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fanders
Well-known member
Reserved for more britool catalogue covers
In the catalog I see the WW sockets sat in a removable tray, but haven't seen the tray anywhere else in real life.
Refer page 36 of Cat 107 (1968 era)
fanders
Well-known member
Nice info!
landrover bodger
Well-known member
looks about the right shape for priming rover v8 oil pumps ot sure about the size
VeeMax
New member
I have really enjoyed reading all the preceding pages of this topic and as a newbie to this forum so I hope it is OK if I chip in.
I have a Britool AVT280 / R tension wrench that is stamped "Made In England" and I would like to know the age of his tool.
An advertisement for Britool adjustable tension wrenches appeared in the Motor Industry magazine for December 1956 and the tool is stamped as "British Made".
If anyone could tell me the approximate age of this tension wrench is and when the change from "British Made" to "Made In England" occurred I would be most grateful. The AVT280 / R tension wrench I have has three scales i.e.
1. Tens of LB.INS [4 - 28]
2. LB.FEET [4 - 23]
3. KILOGRAM - METRES [0.55 - 3]
The overall length of the tool is 16 inches
Thank you in advance for any comments.
I have a Britool AVT280 / R tension wrench that is stamped "Made In England" and I would like to know the age of his tool.
An advertisement for Britool adjustable tension wrenches appeared in the Motor Industry magazine for December 1956 and the tool is stamped as "British Made".
If anyone could tell me the approximate age of this tension wrench is and when the change from "British Made" to "Made In England" occurred I would be most grateful. The AVT280 / R tension wrench I have has three scales i.e.
1. Tens of LB.INS [4 - 28]
2. LB.FEET [4 - 23]
3. KILOGRAM - METRES [0.55 - 3]
The overall length of the tool is 16 inches
Thank you in advance for any comments.
Attachments
VeeMax
New member
Private Lugnutz
Well-known member
I don't have the definitive answer, but there are various references on this thread to 1960 as an approximate cut-off. I am coincidentally very curious myself, as a I have found a pair of DUNLOP motorcycle spoons marked 'MADE IN ENGLAND' that I would like to put with some reasonable sense of authenticity in a BSA WDM20 toolkit. (I have a little leeway in the sense that I am preserving it "as is" - last reconditioned by REME in 1955 and sporting a heavy coat of NATO green paint.)
So my question is a qualification: Is 1960 an approximate date for an industry-wide marking change from 'British Made' to 'Made in England'? Or do the references to that as a changeover date pertain to Britool in particular?