WOW, I AM IN AWE!! I first got interested in Vintage tools and Vintage Craftsman ( the latter being my favorite) a little over a year ago after my Little Brother, Best friend and Business Partner passed away. We were close so I was extremely upset and I needed a diversion. One day I was going through his tools, ( We had a Handyman Service) My Father's tools, and mine. I came across a few things that I thought were interesting and obviously Vintage. One of them was a 3/8s breaker bar Craftsman vandium with the complete underline logo and I tried looking it up and ended up joining a few Craftsman tool collectors sites on FB. Anyway I found many, many similar ones but not exactly like mine and nobody until just recentlyWrenchGuy and I were discussing this, and I know we have threads like this for the Heritage and Crown marked tools, which are mostly power tools and boxes, (the tools generally having =V= or -V- markings...) but we were unable to find one for the older "Long C" Craftsman tools.
Background:
Most of the "Long C" marked tools were from the early thirties (about 1933 based on catalog evidence), and mostly ended by the late '40s, but there were still a few so marked going into the early 50s or so.
For this thread, any tools from this era are OK to post. Hfor owever please post Crown and Heritage (red oval) tools in their respective threads.
For the "Long C" markings, the key is the full or partial underline extending from the front "C"; but there were also some markings that omitted the underline, or it was just a tiny half letter width long, but the Letter styling was also distinctive, with an angular font:
EDIT: I guess for clarification showing some of the variants: No underline just the geometric type font, a short one letter variant on the crescent, the half underline adn the full:
Note the geometric angles on the C, R, A the S. This is often much more sharply defined than on this example, which was picked to show a "short" Long C...
What started me down this path?
I personally have long collected the Long C tools starting with a 1/2" drive socket set that took me about 30 years to complete, one socket at a time. When I first set them aside I had four total IIR, and simply added as I ran across them at fleas, and yard and estate sales. This was also my very first stab at "collecting" a tool, rather than buying users!
I acquired other Long C's of course, and only after I completed the last socket (The 3/4" seemed to evade me for ages - I finally traded for it here on GJ!), did I find a complete boxed set a couple of years ago with not only the 1/2" set, but 3/8's and all the ratchets and extensions as well (Ratchets also evaded me for YEARS). As many find, you only find them lot AFTER you find that elusive first one!
This is the set today, and has all the sizes from 7/16 to 1-1/16
I eventually went after the period correct boxes for the tools... And this is the roller of the stack I have (the top is somewhat buried) and a sampling of what is in the three drawers of the roller. I have MANY more Long C tools, but got to leave some for later, (and don't have time to fully photo-document them)
I got the top box with the assistance of a an East coast GJ member, who bought and picked it up for me, then shipped it to me, (Fully paid for by me)
The roller was a local CL buy.
This box set has all of my early tools Sears sold in it (including Dunlap etc.) but no "Vee" series (that is another carry box..), and here are the contents of the three drawers of the roller, aerial shots:
There is at least one "None Better" (New Britain) ratchet that is the same as the Long C ratchets, (not surprising as they were the MFG for Sears then)
That blue box was a find with "junk" in it. I had three of the wrenches:
I'll post more pics, time permitting.
Feel Free to post your own "long C", or other period correct tools!
Welcome! I am a moderator/ co founder of this group ! It is focused on vintage craftsman tools and doesn’t allow some of the sales or other irritating things that other craftsman fb groups do so hopefully you will join and enjoy your time there! When you have a moment, post some pics of your tools you were mentioning!
Ha ha, well said Jason
. Those things can be more fragile than a copy of the Magna Carta 
And that is the only one he has ever had/found
. I stand zero chance of ever getting that one unless I find an absolutely mint version 
. So basically it would have to be a cold day in a hot place before he would even think about it.Absolutely! Only offered for a few years and they disappeared from the catalog in ‘42 and didn’t show up until after the war with a heritage badge.
I agree about it being the biggest, smaller version of the boxes. Funny they thought anyone would be carrying them like a carry boxGreat liberation of a cool piece of history there Ben. I'd say you've got the larger of the two, 2 drawer top chests ( "big" 2 drawer chest is pretty small). The smaller box is actually a carry box in that it has a leather top handle. Pictured here is the smaller box, the last pic is a line up of the smallest chest sitting on the "large" 2 drawer chest sitting on 3d chest sitting on a roller.
. Don’t let their small size fool you, they are exceptionally well built and I wouldn’t want to attempt to carry one with tools inside. I would love to find the matching roller but as we discussed on the craftsman fb pages,short life span, lack of consumer interest and that little conflict in the 40’s created a short pool of these-even when new. Maybe I will get lucky and find one some day. This is kinda weird but around here, there are more plomb tool mobiles than long c rollers 
I'm guessing the previous owner, WB VI, learned how to ruin markings for future generations of collectors to enjoy from WB V, who learned from WB IV, who learned from WB III, etc back to that dang troublemaking Billy the Kid.
Doesn't make your hypothetical tool marker timeline any less funny and only slightly less plausible!
Nice find! Very uncommon for sureThose early craftsman wrenches are scarce. I have only found one
This is an excellent find and not common! Nice job getting that set back togetherThis is the first Phillips screwdriver I've found in this style. It's got a nice deep logo stamp compared to most of the others I have. Someone plierized the shank, but at least they didn't grab the handle.
It's only got one patent number stamped on the shank.
I spent a few hours cleaning the C-series set up, using an ultra-sonic cleaner filled with naphtha, followed by a toothbrush with shortened bristles. I also used a very soft stainless brush to clean up the knurled handles.
Here are some photos that show the partitions built into the tray.
I like that there's enough room to have the midget lid open while it's in the tray.
(The Vlchek and Fairmount wrenches in the background were also initialized WBM, so I bought them when I went back to the store).
I'm guessing the little compartment at the end is meant to hold the plug.
This tray of tools was sitting inside a new looking Craftsman box in front of the counter, with a $50 price tag. I didn't want the box, so I asked the manager if he'd separate them and he said he thought they should sell together, because they were the same brand. I explained that the tools belonged in the tray, but the tray didn't belong in that box and he asked what I wanted to pay for the tools. I asked him if he thought he could sell the box for twenty dollars and he said yes, so I asked if that meant the tools were worth thirty and he said yes again. Sold! (I'll bet he could have easily gotten thirty bucks for that new box, but whatever). I wasn't haggling. I was just negotiating.
Tom
