Introducing myself

[Dadwasadealer]

I am 70 years old and was an amateur car mechanic (necessary for the old wrecks I owned in the 60’s and 70’s). My Dad was an experienced auto mechanic and was a Snap-on dealer from the early 1950’s until he retired in 1980. He passed away a while back and I inherited his snap-on rolling tool box with his sets of ratchets, sockets, wrenches, etc. I am a little confused about the “date stamp” thing. Many of his tools don’t seem to have date stamps, except for one which has a capital “E” on it... 1944? He did work during the war in a job that was considered a “war time job”.... probably doing repair of vehicles or something. It is possible that the tool is from that time. The date stamp is on both sides of the ratchet head, and on the handle just below where the part number is shown - F712. Any ideas what this might mean? PHOTOS ATTACHED

 

[DadsTools]

Welcome!

There were two uses of the "E", one being the wartime "Emergency" mark. The other is from sometime around the 1960s when for a few years Snap-On began a program through their dealers/truck guys where, rather than rebuild a broken ratchet or replace it with a brand new one, SO issued factory-rebuilt ratchets as "Exchange" ratchets. it appears as if the one you have is from the Exchange program. I understand it didn't last long because it was highly unpopular with the truck guys.

There is a date code on this between the ON-OFF under the selector. Hard for me to see clearly but it looks like its for 1965.

 

[d42jeep]

Looks like 1965 to me, too. Here is my E marked 3/8” drive ratchet from 1944.
-Don

 

[MShaw]

Here are two 3/8" drive reconditioned ratchets I purchased in 1962. In the first picture you can see that the original date stamp has been partially obliterated. One is 1946 and the other is 1947. In the second picture you can clearly see the faint E stamp on one and the other has just a nick like the stamp partially missed.

 

[2oolhound]

Welcome to the site Dadwasadealer and thanks for the post. I learned something today. To me that just looked like an owner's mark. Thanks all!

 

[Shelbylex]

Welcome, Dadwasadealer
Interesting piece. I have a socket + extension from 1944 and a breaker bar from 1945 (E and G codes respectively). Both are dull grey color - I assume Cd finish. If I remember correctly (not at home now), E was pointing in opposite direction. Thus I am also agreeing with opinions above that this is more likely to be later time period.

Please post more examples from your collection!

Addendum: Correction with images below: reverse E was 1963, 1944 was normal E

 

[J.A.F.E.]

Sometimes ratchets turned in for warranty were replaced with a rebuilt ratchet and marked with an E or Exchange stamp. Some dealers stamped the ratchets with an E when they rebuilt them as well. The date stamp on your ratchet is the 9 between the On and Off markings for the selector switch.

 

[Shelbylex]

Correcting myself:
1944 SO tools were E , reversed E were 1963
Please click on pictures to increase the size