Spintites - Some Morning Research

[twertsy]

I must admit, I have an affinity toward these Spintite nut drivers. This morning I was taking some pictures and uploading tools to my site. I came across a nut driver in the pile, obviously a Spintite. Upon closer examination however, I noticed it was stamped simply "Stevens Spintite #5." This made me take a closer look at my other examples where I noted that they all say "Stevens - Walden" or "Walden Worchester." That in turn made me start doing a little research. It didn't take long to find newspaper advertisements showing the "Spintite Wrenches."

I had always assumed they were a Walden product. In fact, they were developed and marketed by Stevens & Co. 2-3 years prior to the Stevens and Walden merger in 1926.

The first pic is an example of some Stevens Walden and Walden Worcester examples.

The second pic is my oddball "Stevens Spintite #5."

The third pic is an advertisement in a newspaper in 1924.

 

[JohnFreeman]

I have a set with a cast iron base... they're old, and I don't know the date.

 

[JoCoSawdust]

Your research abilities never cease to amaze me. Thanks for the info.

 

[d42jeep]

I think that the internal tapered knurled driver I sent you some time back may have just been marked Stevens. I had wondered for a long time what it was used for before we found the info about it on the internet.
-Don

 

[woody 73]

Another great American Company.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

...before we found the info about it on the internet.

I'm not sure what this refers to, but in case anyone who wasn't part of the conversation back then is now wondering about their application, here is a link where I summarized my conclusions and evidence on the subject.

 

[d42jeep]

Here is a picture of the Stevens radio Spintite I sent to Todd. I had discovered this snippet from the ‘40 catalog (I think) and passed it along to him. I believe this happened in early 2017 but I can barely remember what I had for breakfast.
-Don

 

[Private Lugnutz]

Haha. Like children's birthdates! I don't remember seeing anything about this on TA, but I was just trying to confirm that we were talking about the same explanation. (We are. Same catalog snippet.)

 

[tym]

Interesting. And a more modern interpretation were the trigger-operated wire wrap tools (for electronics) from the 1970s.

 

[twertsy]

Haha. Like children's birthdates! I don't remember seeing anything about this on TA, but I was just trying to confirm that we were talking about the same explanation. (We are. Same catalog snippet.)

****!! You just reminded me it's my son's birthday.........

 

[DadsTools]

I've only ever found one of these wood handle ones here in the vintage-tool impoverished wastelands of Florida. It does say Stevens on it. It's buried in a box somewhere.

 

[HeelSpur]

I have 4 black handles nut drivers and one of them says spin-type, the other 3 just have a size and usa on them, and they are hex shaped not round. Any idea's?

 

[HeelSpur]

DSCF1765 by wvwheaties, on Flickr

 

[RedVise]

Well I'm jealous of you guys with the stands. But I remembered I have these tucked away. I am fond of the various multi tools (wait... another thread !!) and picked these up in the past. I believe the handle is with my box of multi tools somewhere...
But here you go, SpinTite Walden Worcester socket set and Walden Worcesters screwdrivers and point.

Brian

 

[Oldtuleguy]

I have one mixed set with a stand I have enjoyed for awhile

 

[leg17]

Here is a set on eBay.
Could be a pretty good deal.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Set-Spinti...751593?hash=item4436896ae9:g:WaMAAOSwk4hcbYcH

 

[Oldtuleguy]

Wow. He is optimistic.

 

[d42jeep]

I paid under $30.00 for mine and the Berkeley eBay seller dropped them off at my house!
-Don

 

[tym]

Here is a set on eBay.
Could be a pretty good deal.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Set-Spinti...751593?hash=item4436896ae9:g:WaMAAOSwk4hcbYcH

A veritable bargain!

 

[Provincial]

I found a 3/8" Walden Spintite at the Restore today.

 

[NoahG]

Just scored a box of a dozen 3/8 Spintites. I’d never seen any with plastic handles that weren’t yellow. Love that blue tint.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Mintgrun]

I bought a little pile of tools today for $10. Simple math determined that I paid $.40 a piece for the tools. So, $1.20 for these three Stevens Spintite knurled nut drivers. They are marked STEVENS NEW YORK SPINTITE and PAT.APLD.FOR. According to the information in the original post, I'm guessing mid twenties. Do you suppose the R stands for Radio?





Apparently I neglected to clean out the end of the #5. It's more dusty than rusty.



Here are the rest of my STEVENS nut drivers. Aside from the one on the left, which is marked BULL DOG. I found that one today as well.



Maybe these belong in the Radio Tools box I picked up a couple weeks ago! (?) : )



Lugs, thank you for the link above about the knurled nut sockets. I'd seen some of these in the past and passed on them, not knowing what they were for. They had a much bulkier handle design.

Tom

 

[Private Lugnutz]

Do you suppose the R stands for Radio?

The logic of the deduction is hard to argue with.

Lugs, thank you for the link above about the knurled nut sockets. I'd seen some of these in the past and passed on them, not knowing what they were for.

You're welcome.

 

[four.cycle]

Wow! Mintgrun, that is an amazing find.
I would put money on the "R" indicating "radio". And the date estimate of 1920s makes perfect sense. Radios were a hot deal in the 1920s.
Even more amazing is that you have what appears to be a fairly complete set of the early "Spintite" models.

 

[humber2]

Was there another application for the rose head or knurled screw head?

Reason I ask is that radio use for them really dates from about 1930 when cone speakers were bolted into wood cabinet.

There are several sizes evident, I was disappointed to find that the Indestro socket was too large for the Philco heads.

 

[Provincial]

I bought a little pile of tools today for $10. Simple math determined that I paid $.40 a piece for the tools. So, $1.20 for these three Stevens Spintite knurled nut drivers. They are marked STEVENS NEW YORK SPINTITE and PAT.APLD.FOR. According to the information in the original post, I'm guessing mid twenties. Do you suppose the R stands for Radio?





Apparently I neglected to clean out the end of the #5. It's more dusty than rusty.



Here are the rest of my STEVENS nut drivers. Aside from the one on the left, which is marked BULL DOG. I found that one today as well.



Maybe these belong in the Radio Tools box I picked up a couple weeks ago! (?) : )



Lugs, thank you for the link above about the knurled nut sockets. I'd seen some of these in the past and passed on them, not knowing what they were for. They had a much bulkier handle design.

Tom

Tom, I think those R Spintites may be for knurled nuts. Here is an image.

 

[d42jeep]

Take a look at the catalog image in post #7.
-Don

 

[Private Lugnutz]

Was there another application for the rose head or knurled screw head?

I've seen it postulated that they were for damaged fasteners, with the idea being that all the knurls grab whatever uneven points they can of a mangled bolt or nut. But I have never seen that substantiated like the radio use, which goes well beyond the Walden catalog. The same application is described in even more direct and elaborate language in Husky and Pexto catalogs and on later Oxwall kit packaging.

The fixed spinners in different sizes are cool, especially from the collector perspective, but the single sockets that you find in socket wrench kits, with graduated or beveled knurling, to fit knurled fasteners of various sizes, make the most sense to me.

 

[RTM]

Take a look at the catalog image in post #7.
-Don

So the R is for Round? I think that’s a little too obvious Don. are the S ones for Square too?

Just poking about here and the Xcelite thread, trying to figure out a practical way to store my harlequin set.

 

[four.cycle]

Was there another application for the rose head or knurled screw head?
Reason I ask is that radio use for them really dates from about 1930 when cone speakers were bolted into wood cabinet.
There are several sizes evident, I was disappointed to find that the Indestro socket was too large for the Philco heads.

As far as I know (from early catalog listings and owning several different types of those socket sets that contain that odd knurled socket) is that the sockets themselves were being made as far back as the 1920s. I'm not an expert on radios by any means.
I just got a tiny set of "G.M." sockets that contain one of those - it's a tiny thing:

there were other makers of those types of nut drivers, like this "Pexto" set, but I have no idea what size it might be:

 

[ttpete]

Thru-panel toggle switches have one hex nut and one knurled nut. Other panel devices may use knurled nuts as well.

 

[humber2]

To wrench a toggle switch nut a hollow shaft spintite would fit whereas a socket would be too short.

I’ll have to look for these now.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

To wrench a toggle switch nut a hollow shaft spintite would fit whereas a socket would be too short.

I'm not following you on this point, humber.

What's the difference between a wooden handle, a ferrule, a shank and a "socket" permanently fixed (welded, press-fit or forged) on the end of it (typified by Walden "Spintite", which is just one of many and perhaps not even the first...) and a wooden handle, a ferrule, a shank and a detachable socket temporarily placed on the end of it? Most of my permanent fixed-socket type spinners/drivers are no longer than a typical midget spinner/driver and socket.

Granted, I do have an extra long reach permanent fixed type spinner, but even that one is no longer than the American Swiss made extra long reach spinner with detachable sockets in my Philco radio wrench kit.

Alas, none of these - fixed or detachable, are knurled. It doesn't seem to have been an all-pervasive industry wide thing.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

Going back to humber's earlier question, and after thinking about it and rummaging around for awhile, I do have one other socket with a beveled, knurled opening - a Herbrand J-43. It was made for removing the lock washers on Bendix type brake spring cups. That cutout is just so you can see the washer through the socket.

I'm not suggesting that's the application, of course. But I do think the concept is the same. Even though those lock washers aren't knurled like thumbscrews, the teeth grip into it almost like the ridges formed by the whorls on the pads of our fingertips.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

I also have this early nifty little L-handle with a knurled opening.

 

[humber2]

KD 2774 gives two sizes

Snappy B1356C from Pat # 201171

Snappy CG 14 dates to 1941

 

[d42jeep]

Hey Humber,
Here are a few more. Cornwell, Snap-on and I think the blue handle one is Cal-Van. I’ve had that one for a really long time.
-Don

 

[MisterEd]

Stevens Spintite 341x 11/32 3406 3/16

From Model T Ford Club of America (https://www.mtfca.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?t=243) regarding Stevens Spintite”:
1. “they changed to a dual number system sometime in the mid 20s era that used fractional numbers and also a part number. The dual number system with only the Stevens name on it was used till early 1926 when Walden bought out Stevens and added there (sic) name.”
2. “The two ring handles are used with the early # style system tools. The "no ring" handles are used with the dual number system tools.”
3. “The "no knurling" style is used with the early # style of tools. The "knurling" style of ferial (sic) is used with the dual number style of tools.”
4. “The tools with the dual number system with both Stevens and Walden on them are correct for 26 and 27 Model T era as well as all the Model A and till sometime into the V8 era, as long as they have a black handle. Sometime before WW2 the handles changed to a natural finish. The tools were still the same just with a natural finish handle.”

If this is redundant, mea culpa, ma culpa, mea maxima culpa.

 

[d42jeep]

Here are two black handle early nutdrivers and a natural finish example that I recently received.
—Don

 

[four.cycle]

I don't think I've posted these anywhere yet. Stevens material prior to and up to merger with Walden-Worcester:

Stevens / Stevens & Co., 375 Broadway, New York, NY / "Spintite" nut drivers, "Perfect" spoke wrench, "Speed-Up" tools, screwdriver / merged with Walden-Worcester 1926 to become Stevens-Walden /


1910 Hardware Dealers Magazine Stevens & Co. ad pp 697

1918 Chilton Automobile Directory Stevens & Co. ad pp 531

1922 Motor Age Magazine Stevens & Co. ad pp 98

1922 Motor Age Magazine Stevens & Co. ad pp 89

1924 Popular Science Stevens & Co. ad pp 104

September 2, 1926 Motor Age Magazine Stevens-Walden-Worcester merger announcement advertisement pp 4