Mysterious lang ratcheting wrench collection

[winkangrin]

Hello All

Hope I am not posting this in the wrong place, if so, please forgive me.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. My honey, who knows me too well, gave me the coolest gift ever.....a bunch of forgotten and rusty tools.

The chief interesting thing were some 80's era Mac wrenches, a complete sae set of them. Then there were some '30's-'40's era Craftsman box end wrenches, uber cool and in excellent shape, a set of S-K combo wrenches from the Faucom era, a really nice New Britain Husky 1/4 ratchet and a cache of other things, but the one thing that really has my attention is a set of Lang made ratcheting wrenches.

I have always loved this style of wrench, and have a set of Craftsman, and partial sets of Snap On, Blackhawk, Proto, and even a Pat pending OTC from 1947. No big deal, right? Lang made these for nearly every tool manufacturer and retailer over the years. They are easily identified by the Patent # 2500635 as being manufactured by Lang and are very common.

This set, however, bears a retailer that I have never heard of. They are marked 'Auto-Test', and do not bear the Snap On code date that Lang used on their production of every other example I have seen.

The construction and style of the script strongly suggest early production. There is no plastic used in the lamination like the later Crafty, Proto and Snap On, it is completely steel.

Being curious, I finally found information on the trademark 'Auto-Test'. It was registered to John Lang, and the company was dissolved in 1969. Hmmmm.

So, my question is, can anyone tell me more about 'Auot-Test'? It seems curious that Lang would have a separate company to sell Lang wrenches outside of Lang. And, where would one buy these back in the day?

About the wrenches: They appear absolutely brand spanking new, outside of a little hazing on the tops, which was easily buffed away. It is my opinion that they have never loosened a single nut.

 

[Mopar-Scooby-Doo]

How about some pics?

 

[winkangrin]

Sorry for the delay....here is a shot of the set. Difficult to get a great pic of the logo due to the flash. I have also included shots of a 1985 Blackhawk, a 2002 and a 2004 Craftsman to illustrate the similarities and differences. The later models, while retaining the same patent number, utilize plastic in the lamination and are date coded using Snap On's scheme (not really surprising, given Lang was a SO employee and designer prior to starting his own company, and SO was his first customer with the new wrench in 1947)

 

[winkangrin]

Forgive my submission of upside down photos

 

[winkangrin]

Well, I sent the follwing inquiry to Lang Tools:


Hello I am a huge fan for years of the Lang ratcheting wrenches. I have Lang sets, Snap On sets, Craftsman sets and others. I got a gift of a mint set bearing the name 'Auto-Test' and can find nothing a
bout the brand. I researched the trademark and found it was registered to John Lang of Neilsville Wisconsin and that the company was dissolved in 1969. Can you give me any info regarding these tools? Ed Childress

 

[winkangrin]

...and got this response:


Good morning Ed~

*@#$

Thank-you for contacting us.*@#$ I am not familiar with the brand “Auto-Test” nor are we registered out of Neilsville, WI or ever have been.

*@#$

Jenny Soens
Customer Care Representative
A & E Tools

 

[winkangrin]

Hmmm....do you think she knows who John Lang was (or is)?

Confusion......

 

[mrspeed]

Did you ever find anything else out about these? There have been multiple times I've spent 30 minutes researching a tool, including searching forums and skimming patents. Then I end up emailing the tool company when I come to a dead end, only to get a response indicating I already know more than they have any interest in finding out.

Sent from my Pixel 2 using The Garage Journal mobile app

 

[Mytjad]

John Lang founder of lang tools. His son John Lang and grandson currently operate A&E Handtools (founded and formed by lang after having dissolved lang tools) and Eckmmen stamping both in Racine, WI along with a few small companies down south. They own the high end Lang brand and manufacture snapon bluepoint craftman.... Et al.... based off of their Lang tool designs. The dies were developed by Summit Tool and used at Eckmmen and the actual "wheel/hex" was machined and broached at A&E. So we go to the stamping itself. There were several versions, but we are looking at the branding. Mine are Matco and A&E, both vintage and thier main brands back in the day. It appears that you just might have a set of originals from the R&D stages prior to recieving their branding and perhaps even the chrome... The ones in the pick look like raw steel.

I know, my response 6 years later... I was a tool maker at Summit and a machinist at A&E, my girlfriend just left A&E after 11 years of machining (she talked to the owners on a regular basis) and I collect old tools, these old wrenches are a favorite of mine as they show up in estate sales constantly in the area where these companies are located in SE WI. I just happen to be curious and asked the same questions back about 10 years ago when i worked there.