Anyone else seen these or know anything about them? I believe they are genuine fake Sears Craftsman metric offset wrenches. Sears never stamped their tools "Sears" or "made in Japan" or "Drop Forged BF Japan" did they? Weird. Picked them up at a garage sale for $10, they work well and I like the smaller sizes for working on my vintage Honda Motorcycles.
They remind of a shop I saw in Turkey.
These are completely legit. They're intended to be a budget alternative to Craftsman.
I've posted this info in a few other places, but thought I'd repeat it here by revising this relevant thread. Plus, new information seems to always come up with the more examples I see having either the original pouch or the metal holders with labels so you can see the particular age logo on them. What I've found so far:
Sometime in the late 1940s to early 1950s, Sears awarded its contract for making its budget recessed handle end wrenches to Lectrolite Corp (LC). LC used its Tru-Fit budget wrench design as the model, changing the markings for Sears. LC made these for other customers, including quite a volume having no brand name at all that chains could sell with their own branded or unbranded packaging. You see them everywhere in pawn shops, garage sales and flea markets. Many have the forged LC mark, some do not. Very similar to the mountains of what are clearly Indestro end wrenches but that are just marked Select Steel. The LC are recognized by the straight-edged acute joint where the box meets the shank.
These were marked Dunlap until around 1958 when the name was changed to just plain SEARS.
In 1962, S-K and LC were sold to Wayne Industries. It appears at this time that Wayne ended production of its TruFit line and all its contract versions, including SEARS. Sears then contracted these wrenches (and subsequently many other tools including some vises) to an as-yet to be identified Japan mfr identified by the BF mark. I suspect Wayne gave them the go-ahead to use the old TruFit design because these early BF JAPAN wrenches are exact counterfeits of the LC wrenches. Based on examples I've seen and reports like this thread, production of BF JAPAN wrenches persisted into the early 1980s, when I presume it was switched over to Taiwan.
At some point in BF production, the design was changed from the old TruFit model to a more generic geometry, as is the case with the OP wrenches.
A mystery that still remains for me is that sometime during this time period from 1962 to early 1980s, Sears also revived its old Companion brand name originally dropped from its end wrenches sometime in the late 1930s - early 1940s. Trouble is, COMPANION marked wrenches seem to parallel the SEARS marked wrenches. While the COMPANION are less common, I've seen examples both in the LC TruFit design and with date-able packaging being produced concurrently with the SEARS marked wrenches. Still don't know what's the story behind this, as it doesn't look as if one name completely superseded the other.
Anyway, that's what I have on them so far.
