craftsman crown date please

[jim]

i started collecting crown top tool boxes (it's all your fault) and have noticed that the logos are different. some have a only black outline around them and some with a black and red line around them. what is the date line for these? could you please tell me the time line for the black only, and a time line for the black and the red combined ones. thanks jim

 

[lbgradwell]

All I can say with certainty is the second logo (newer) was in existence by 1971.

 

[jim]

looked around and still can not find any date ranges for the pictures above. any help would be great help. thanks jim

 

[bonneyman]

Unless a C-man collector knows and speaks up, I think the only way we could find out the dates of the different badges will be people who bought boxes and remember the years and chime in fill in the blanks. (I did this with S-K badges and got fairly good resolution).

Although a perusal of Craftsman tool catalogs might also help in this regard.

 

[TheModelAGuy]

Can the date range be narrowed down by someone with a collection of the old catalogs?

 

[egnorant]

The upper one was in use very late 58 and in 59 but it says "Made in U.S.A" instead of "Reg. Trade Mark".

Bruce

 

[jim]

all my black and red ones say "made in usa". all my black only ones say "reg trade mark". any dates from anyone yet? jim

 

[bluebolt]

One way to narrow down the dates is by the handles on the toolboxes, metal handle, metal handle late 50's early sixtys, black plastic handle that is curved late 60's, more square handle 70's.

 

[BFBOB]

Some clues can be found in the old catalogs. Here's a link to a bunch of them:


http://www.blackburntools.com/articles/rose-tools-catalog-archives/sears/index.html

 

[MrCraftsmanTools]

The dates can be be found in The Craftsman Catalog DVDs. They contain every craftsman catalog made. Ebay 111657774988

 

[bmills2]

in 1977

 

[Cool Tools]

I am not sure what to think about the time lines on the crown tool boxes and handles. I assembled a set of Craftsman =v= tools over many years. My crown tool box has a square plastic handle. I bought a new 17" Sears Craftsman tool box new (rough looking without logo) at Sears in about 1975 or 1976. It has a square plastic handle and slots in the steel on the front going up higher than my 17" crown box.

 

[Cool Tools]

The photos of the crown box with rounded plastic handle might be a box that was sold new around 1968-1969.

The newer gray box has a rounded plastic handle and it was sold new in a box with a metal Sears Craftsman name plate but it has a Craftsman decal on the front. These were in about the 1988 catalog. It is confusing without having the store purchase records. It looks like the catalogs were not always accurate but they give something to go on.

 

[Etchase]

This guy has very well documented answers. And even a book. I bought one in the hope he will pick something else to research.

 

[Cool Tools]

That is interesting. I pulled up a few catalog clips and found several differences. The first 1968 pic shows a round handle in a set. The second 1968 hip roof pic mentions the bigger box with a plastisol coated steel handle and the smaller hip box with a polyethylene handle. The 1969 pics show a square handle.

I noticed how the shipping weight advertised over several years was different also. when I used a micrometer to measure the thickness of my 17" crown box (gray tray) it was 0.029 or 22 gauge sheet metal. My other 17" box (red tray) I bought in maybe 1975 measured 0.038" thick and the tools in the set it came with were stamped V and VV. I copied a few pics of a crown box with a red tray that might be the change over point close to when I bought my 1975 box. Keep in mind my Sears store was a big distribution center for a quadrant of the USA. I noticed how products sold there came out before the catalogs advertised them. A person said they bought a tractor from Sears new at the distribution center in 1972 but everybody said the tractor was a 1973 model. Sears can be confusing to make sense of sometimes.