To avoid these ads, REGISTER NOW!

Enemy Tools: Soviet, Fascist, etcetera?

B

Bolster

Well-known member
Joined
Jul 8, 2008
Messages
4,056
Location
Mexifornia
I'm at Ft Bragg giving a series of lectures this week, and in my free time I stopped by a couple of used tool stores and pawn shops, and saw some interesting items.

One wrench was boldly marked "Made in USSR." In English. (?) Looks like it was used by a burly Comrade to beat his truck into submission, so I passed on it.

Got me to wondering, does anybody have a collection of "enemy" (from a conventional U.S. perspective) tools?

Soviet/USSR?
Fascist German?
Fascist Italian?
Imperial Japan?
Saddam-era Iraqi?
Others?

(For this discussion, current issue Chi-com tools don't count. Everybody has those.)

The only "enemy tool" I have is a German fork from the fascist era, that some relative dragged home as a war trophy. Why he couldn't have brought a pair of Leitz binoculars or a Luger instead, is a mystery. But it is marked with the Chicken over a Spider logo they were fond of using in Der Vaterland, back in the day.

Would be interesting to see what "the enemy" (whoever they may be) was using to fix their machinery...
 
Last edited:
To avoid these ads, REGISTER NOW!
V

vssjim

ALLIANCE MEMBER
Joined
Aug 5, 2007
Messages
2,713
Location
McLean Va.
I've never seen anything other than some USSR tools that probably came from a motorcycle for sale but never owned anything my self
 
W

wilbilt

Banned
Joined
Aug 17, 2006
Messages
5,602
Location
NorCal
An interesting concept. I don't have any such tools, but dear old dad had a tin full of Reich coins.

Going way back, the story goes that the family was tied to those such as Krupp by commerce as well as marriage. The Krupps were involved in arms manufacture since medieval times.

Great-great granddad was disowned for marrying a girl below the "family status". He made his way to Russia as Czar Nicolas was looking for assistance surveying the Trans-Siberian Railway. His son, my ggf, hated the Czarist regime and came to the US briefly in the early 1900s, possibly due to crimes against the Russian government.

He and his brother bought the equipment from a bankrupt Brooklyn machine shop, loaded it on a ship, and returned to Russia. He was not seen here again, but the understanding is that his plan was to manufacture weapons for the Bolsheviks.

Meanwhile, the family in Germany along with Krupp were gearing up for the world wars.

No doubt I have relatives who were listed as war criminals in those days. I would be interested in seeing tools and equipment from both Germany and Russia produced in the first half of the 20th century.
 
V

vssjim

ALLIANCE MEMBER
Joined
Aug 5, 2007
Messages
2,713
Location
McLean Va.
I'm don't also think that alot of tools from those countries were exported to any country that could have found their way here, back in those days alot of US made tools were fairly cheap cost wise compared to tools from those countries so they would have been flooding those areas except the USSR which was not in to high production that would have made exports possible, in the USSR days they were so backwards that shortages were more of a problem.
 
O

old salvage

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 16, 2007
Messages
1,464
Location
Rhode Island
I have a one inch micrometer that is from war era Japan.
Its a well made, nice looking tool.
(ignore my signature just this once)
 
M

MAD

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 27, 2007
Messages
2,700
Location
Western MA
I traveled around Russia fairly extensively in the early-mid 1990s. I did not bring any tools home. I actually ended up giving away some pliers and adjustable wrenches. Tools seemed in short supply and in high demand. A lot of people worked on their own cars and anyone that was trained as a driver in the military was also trained as a mechanic. There was certainly no shortage of things to fix if you could actually get the parts you needed.

I was traveling by bus one brisk January day when after stopping at a village somewhere between Uglich and Yaroslavl the bus got stuck in fist gear. Now when I say a village, this was just a few little wooden houses. You might even say they were shacks. There was no phone, electricity or plumbing.

The driver walked down the aisle toward my seat with an open end wrench and proceeded to remove about a dozen bolts under the mat and then pulled up an access panel in the floor. He then used the same wrench to remove another dozen or more bolts to take take a top cover off the transmission. Next he took a big hunk of pipe and a hammer and started to beat the ever loving **** out of the inside of the ****** in order to get it out of first gear.
After he put everything back together, he gave it a try and it was still stuck in first. The whole process was then repeated, and more than two hours later, we were moving again. In that time, only two vehicles passed by, both military,neither stopped.

You could just tell by the way the driver acted, that this must have happened on a regular basis. I wish I could have given that poor guy a ratchet.
 
F

Frank Elson

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 12, 2008
Messages
1,375
Location
Lancashire, UK
After the Wall came down and all that followed, Western Europe was flooded with items, mostly watches, that had "Made In The USSR" printed on them.

Now, tell me, why would a country that had only one tool manufacturer - the State - and used the Cyrilic (sp?) alphabet, take the trouble to print the country of origin ( you lived there, you got THAT tool, no choice of any others) in a foreign language?

Only if they were exporting - and they didn't export tools.
 
E

eschoendorff

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 6, 2005
Messages
8,991
Location
Michigan
Interesting thread... I have an uncle who at one point in time collected Nazi Germany war paraphernalia. I'll have to ask him if he ever came across any tools....
 
To avoid these ads, REGISTER NOW!
T

Theo

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 8, 2007
Messages
475
Location
Oakville, On Canada
I just remembered that I have commie binoculars from the mid 80's.

Tento "Made in USSR" 7 x 50 glasses that my parents bought for me when I was around 10 years old.

In Soviet Russia binoculars watch YOU!

They are heavy, uncomfortable and 22 years later the case still smells like it just left the tannery. The image is pretty good and I doubt they'll ever break.
 
W

wilbilt

Banned
Joined
Aug 17, 2006
Messages
5,602
Location
NorCal
Moose-LandTran said:
I don't know about tools from the time periods, but i occasionally catch my German Wrenches arguing with my American screwdrivers over tool politics and drawer boundaries. Very strange. :confused:
Click to expand...

My Swiss files just sit in their drawer and don't say or do anything.
 
B

billymade

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 2, 2008
Messages
7,461
Location
New Mexico
I would assume on the German side of things that the classic brands made tools for the military just like BMW, Porsche and VW did for the vehicles of the war. All of these brands were all founded way before the war and AFAIK participated fully in the war effort; just like all our companies did to support the "arsenal of democracy"!

Hazet started in 1868.
http://www.hazet.de/en/about-hazet/the-company.html

Stahlwille started in 1862.
http://www.stahlwille.de/chronik_engl.php

Elora-Werkzeugfabrik GmbH was founded in 1924.
http://www.elora.de/2/E_tradition.htm

MATADOR was founded in 1900.
http://www.matador.de/index.php?id=unternehmen&L=2
 
S

senlow

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 26, 2008
Messages
2,228
Location
Wheat Ridge, Colorado
I have some Stahlwille, Hazet and a pair of electronics pliers marked "Elberfeld Germany". I have been keeping an eye out for some good Japanese tools to keep in my Xterra.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
To avoid these ads, REGISTER NOW!
Top Bottom