Vintage S-K Tools

[Rileysan]

I found this old boy yesterday, and talked the estate sale guy down to a price I was happy about, and so it followed me home!


A bit rusty and the flip latches and lock hasp are gone:


But there was something about it that makes me want to restore it




It had all the right parts:

And the drawers were straight


I am pretty behind on my "get stuff done on the house" list right now, so this is pretty low priority, but the over all plan is to find a doner for the hasp and latches, pretty common on boxes of this age, beat back the rust, and give it a coating of gloss OD to bring it up to snuff. But I do have the right Artisan marked pieces

Wow! Trade material, by chance?

 

[d42jeep]

Brian,
Although this is a S-K box, I think this is how the front of your new Artisan box should look.
-Don

 

[Catfishdan]

Here’s my sk find from the flea market this morning. An early 1/4” set with the unmarked breaker bar and the cross bar. The sockets are about half sk marked and half “chrome alloy” marked. I think I’ll be looking for the rest of the chrome alloys to make it complete.

 

[d42jeep]

That’s rare to find all of those Chrome Alloy sockets together. Since they were a price line, it’s unlikely that they came in the S-K box originally. It’s much more likely that they would have been included in a Brazil marked set. It took me about three years of searching to complete my Chrome Alloy socket set and I still don’t have an appropriate box.
-Don

 

[Oldtuleguy]

Nice find catfish Dan. I see four chrome alloys in there.

 

[Catfishdan]

Thanks guys. I was stoked to find 4 together. If they’re that rare though, I might just fill the box with sk marked sockets and save the others for trade bait. I thought they may have been original to the set, but sounds like no.

 

[Oldtuleguy]

They were typically for contract stuff or generic sets, but anything is possible.

 

[d42jeep]

Dan,
The box and chrome S-K sockets and unmarked drive tools are pretty rare in their own right. I would date the S-K box and tools from 1940 to 1942. In 1939 the sockets would have been marked S-K Chrome and in 1943 to 1945 they would have had one of the wartime finishes. OTG has a S-K Chrome set if I recall correctly.
-Don

 

[r_olson_06]

Here’s my sk find from the flea market this morning. An early 1/4” set with the unmarked breaker bar and the cross bar. The sockets are about half sk marked and half “chrome alloy” marked. I think I’ll be looking for the rest of the chrome alloys to make it complete.

I might have some CAs in my misc knurled tub of 1/4s. Let me check.

Looking for a Round Beam Plomb 1068 Double Box End Wrench

 

[d42jeep]

On Thursday we found this well used 3/8” drive ratchet and extension at an estate sale near Washoe Lake, NV outside Carson City. After a little cleaning and lubing the ratchet works perfectly.
-Don

 

[outofbounds]

I found this old boy yesterday, and talked the estate sale guy down to a price I was happy about, and so it followed me home!

Nice find, BMWrd!

I tumbled across this 1/2" set last night, in great overall shape. (I'll presume as war era, based on my thin band of knowledge accrued here at this site) and snared on my way to work this AM.....

Looks like I'm a couple of extensions and a universal short of a full box. A couple of shiny sockets in the 12 points, but I'm guessing they were back-fills from the factory from pre war inventory, however I believe that I have both these sockets from a previous cache of sockets that I can tidy up the look a bit.

 

[Username already in use]

That's a great looking 1/2" drive set! SK didn't mark their extensions, breaker bar, or speeder during the war. Very nice find.

 

[d42jeep]

That's a great looking 1/2" drive set! SK didn't mark their extensions, breaker bar, or speeder during the war. Very nice find.

It even has the extremely rare correct cad plated crossbar. I would love to run across one of those. Congratulations. I may have spare cad plated sockets to replace your chrome ones if you decide to. Just let me know. It doesn’t look as if a u-joint was included. Here is a very similar set in the ‘43 catalog.
-Don

 

[outofbounds]

It even has the extremely rare correct cad plated crossbar. I would love to run across one of those. Congratulations. I may have spare cad plated sockets to replace your chrome ones if you decide to. Just let me know. It doesn’t look as if a u-joint was included. Here is a very similar set in the ‘43 catalog.
-Don

UserName / d42jeep,
Thanks for that input. Upon closer inspection just now, on lunch break, I can confirm that the Tee handle. Speeder, and breaker bar are in fact unmarked as Username alluded to. The chrome sockets are a "Chrome Alloy" 31/32" and an "SK Chrome 25/32". I may take you up on a deal for spares if you have them, but I'll check my inventory at home before pursuing that angle as I have 8 or 9 Cad type sockets laying loose in my SK box.

 

[Username already in use]

The chrome sockets are a "Chrome Alloy" 31/32" and an "SK Chrome 25/32".

Those sockets could be original to the box. Both would be pre-war/pre-alloy restrictions. The Cad plating for the rest of the set would point to early wartime production. S-K was a heavy user of black-oxide plating late in the war.

Again, nice set. I've got some S-K envy over that one.

 

[d42jeep]

Me too.
Here is my much simpler wartime set missing the crossbar. I would be surprised if S-K put the Chrome Alloy socket in the set from the factory but the S-K Chrome socket definitely could have been included.
-Don

 

[outofbounds]

Me too.
Here is my much simpler wartime set missing the crossbar. I would be surprised if S-K put the Chrome Alloy socket in the set from the factory but the S-K Chrome socket definitely could have been included.
-Don

Pics of the crossbar being employed as you described......

 

[d42jeep]

Looks familiar. Here is the postwar version.
-Don

 

[Zrxrunner]

New sk acquisition from flea a few weeks ago. Chrome is very rough and missing some pegs, but couldn't leave it there. Any ideas what would all be on it? Guessing pliers and tools with plastic hangers, etc...? Thinking I'll probably straighten everything, remove badge, strip all the chrome and just paint it? Any opinions on that, also?

 

[r_olson_06]

New sk acquisition from flea a few weeks ago. Chrome is very rough and missing some pegs, but couldn't leave it there. Any ideas what would all be on it? Guessing pliers and tools with plastic hangers, etc...? Thinking I'll probably straighten everything, remove badge, strip all the chrome and just paint it? Any opinions on that, also?

I think that one is drive tools. I have a spa display in the garage and will check for you.

Looking for a Round Beam Plomb 1068 Double Box End Wrench

 

[Kdaniel8601]

New sk acquisition from flea a few weeks ago. Chrome is very rough and missing some pegs, but couldn't leave it there. Any ideas what would all be on it? Guessing pliers and tools with plastic hangers, etc...? Thinking I'll probably straighten everything, remove badge, strip all the chrome and just paint it? Any opinions on that, also?

This looks like it, from page 16 of the S-K Wayne Catalog No. 164

 

[Zrxrunner]

Good find kdaniel. I've got a lot of sk wayne pieces like that to fill it up when I get it prepped. Thanks! Now to decide what color or finish to put on it.

 

[d42jeep]

Outofbounds was nice enough to offer me his new wartime 1/2” drive set and it arrived today. I couldn’t find an exact match for it in the ‘43 wartime catalog so as Username suggested upthread it is likely an early war set. In the preface to the wartime catalog, S-K says that they had to cut their offerings by 40%.
-Don

 

[d42jeep]

I added all of my Chrome Alloy marked tools to the extremely rare Brazil marked carry box that Username generously sent me. The last two images are from Alloy Artifacts.
-Don

 

[Oldtuleguy]

Looks good don! Found another box of the chrome alloy 1/4 sockets.

 

[d42jeep]

Nice find. The box looks like the correct color for a Brazil marked box. Any trace of a label?
-Don

 

[Username already in use]

Lookin' good, Don! Glad to see them all happily reunited!

 

[Oldtuleguy]

no trace on this one. I have a tiger box with a trace, and one Brazil that is pretty ledgable.

 

[d42jeep]

Nice family portraits.
-Don

 

[Catfishdan]

I picked up a 3/8” set today. It’s nearly complete. Missing the breaker bar but has the t handle... that never happens. I already have this set, but couldn’t pass it up for five bucks.

 

[d42jeep]

$5.00 indicates serious suckage! I had a very similar experience at a 2017 Berkeley estate sale. A virtually complete set that was a duplicate of one I already had. Let’s just say that I immediately recouped my investment on eBay, plus a little.
-Don

 

[d42jeep]

This postwar 1/2” drive set arrived today from an eBay seller. It was missing the 17” breaker bar and a couple of sockets but included the rare crossbar. I was able to complete it but I’ll need to pick up a couple sockets to replenish my sets.
-Don

 

[mritchie77]

Found this in the old tool pile. Absolutely no makers marks but based on the part #105 I THINK this in an old SK based on a similar one on AA.

Can anyone confirm?

<a href="https://ibb.co/jkw4JqC"><img src="https://i.ibb.co/hFd8YrG/IMG-0998.jpg" alt="IMG-0998" border="0"></a>

 

[r_olson_06]

Found this in the old tool pile. Absolutely no makers marks but based on the part #105 I THINK this in an old SK based on a similar one on AA.

Can anyone confirm?

<a href="https://ibb.co/jkw4JqC"><img src="https://i.ibb.co/hFd8YrG/IMG-0998.jpg" alt="IMG-0998" border="0"></a>

I believe so not 100% though.

Looking for a Round Beam Plomb 1068 Double Box End Wrench

 

[DD T/A]

Found these a month ago, maybe not old but they are very nice and sturdy.

 

[d42jeep]

I believe so not 100% though.

Looking for a Round Beam Plomb 1068 Double Box End Wrench

I have the same one. Twertsy IDed it as being S-K which was good enough for me.
-Don

 

[Oldtuleguy]

I have a blo covered wall hanger set with a 10570 ratchet. Maybe the unmarked version was just 105.

 

[3baygarage]

I think the 105 is a Fulton ratchet.

 

[Oldtuleguy]

That would make sense. Sk made alot of stuff for other companies.

 

[3baygarage]

The early SK and Fulton stuff are basically the same. Old posts have been down this road before talking about the ratchets, extensions, etc.. how many bands and rings, two-dot sockets. It's mind boggling because of so many unbranded tools.