Hello, I have been curious about this for a while. I have seen flatter handled Plomb ratchets as well as a more rounded handle and I have also seen the rounded handle produced as a Proto marked tool. I would imagine there was also a dual marked Plomb/Proto tool as well.
Was the flatter handle produced earlier, with the more rounded handle coming into production closer to the transition to Proto.
Hi there! Sorry I'm late to the discussion; got an email from PlomBob so I am reporting for duty now.
I'm confident the flat handled raw metal Plomb was earliest; the rounded (I call it "puffy") and often chromed Plomb in the pre-transitional and transitional era (I have a rounded handle dual marked breaker bar); and then for a short amount of time, the pebbled Proto rat.
According to my timeline: the very first pebble anything was 1939, on Plomb's pliers. It was a subcontractor's idea, but Plomb adopted it in short order. The last year of Plomb pebble wrenches was likely 1947. PRVTV came out in 1948 (possibly January?), and the transitionals (dual marked) are from this year. Personally I think the grind-offs start to occur in mid or late 1948.
I've seen a dual-marked 1/2" rat, belonging to my good friend V8Garage, the filthy ******* who won't sell it to me. I mean, my
excellent good friend who won't sell it to me. (The filthy selfish *******.) That wonderful and considerate ******* got me started on this collecting in the first place, and has otherwise been very generous to me, and I am grateful to him for it, the big greedy jerk. (I would also like to extend these tender sentiments to my friend PlomBob, too, and a variety of other bastages who collect Plomb who don't haunt this list. Nuts to all of you, my good and dear friends.)
In 1949 the PFPs, the Pebble Field Protos, are introduced for wrenches. Also I have a note that some additional PFPs are added in 1950 (possibly the ratchet??). March 25, 1950 is the last time you see the word Plomb on anything. I think the PFP wrenches ended by 1956. However, you could still find a few pebble Proto items into the 1970s--a 1" ratchet, a pickle bar, line wrenches, pullers. In 1984 IR sold Proto to Stanley. Maybe that was the final end of anything pebble? Just a guess.
But it's possible those pebbles were spread over 40 years...!
Never seen a dual mark 3/8 or 1/4 rat, lots of things I've never seen dual marked. But you can find the dual marked 3/8 hinge handle fairly easily. I have one.
That's a nice ********* you have there Steven. I see you are also a Plomb Nutz SoCal boy like me 'n' Bob 'n' JohnnyBent. Welcome to the nuthouse.
