Vintage snap on screwdriver handle

[knock knock]

Picked these up today at a flea market. All came out of the same 5 gallon bucket.i have picked up others in the past with handles in rough shape.have never seen one as bad as the one second from the left. Is there anyway to confirm that it is a snapon?

 

[bonneyman]

The black ones sure look like Snappy. Love that old profile!

 

[d42jeep]

All of mine with disintegrated handles were replaced by Snap-on customer service with new current screwdrivers.

-Don

More are currently going bad

 

[Zrxrunner]

I think just crackling the way they are is a sign of that handle material being snap on. I don't know what causes that so bad, but I've got about 6 that started doing that, and the fumes and chemicals were so bad that it started rusting all the wrenches I had in the same drawer. Very caustic, I would keep em separate if I were you.

 

[Farmer J.]

A while ago we had a 'stinkdriver' debate somewhere about this... I don't suffer from the problem any more, as i removed and discarded all mine and replaced them with nice wholesome wooden handles..
IIRC Private Lugnutz found out that the black plastic Snap-On used is called Tenite, and yes, the fumes from the decomposition process are unpleasant and highly corrosive to nearby metals.

 

[Tostal]

I suspect that those Snap On black handles are being adversely affected by either claustrophobia or a feeling of being unneeded.
The one's I kept in a rarely opened overflow toolbox, deteriorated, whereas the one's in daily use, out in the open, were fine...

 

[d42jeep]

They are my favorite screwdrivers and I have quite a few that are still intact but the ones I bought off the truck in the late 70s are the ones that seem to have all gone bad. They did have a hard life in the early days and were subjected to plenty of cleaning solvent.
-Don

 

[cody1325]

I have a PH1 with a bad tip, but I keep reading that some of these handles implode as shown.

Thus, I should probably just warranty the whole thing, as opposed to getting a new shaft in the old handle, correct?

 

[d42jeep]

If the handle is intact, I would go with the new blade. I prefer the old handles. If the handle goes bad you can warranty it again.
-Don

 

[johninct]

I believe Snap-On marks the part of the blade that is in the handle. If they smell or are falling apart that is an easy warranty. My driver wanted to warranty all of my old Snap-On screwdrivers just because they will someday crack and smell. 10 years later, they are all still fine with just a little smell.

 

[Farmer J.]

 

[Mike'smeatshop]

Knife collectors have the same issues. They call the material Celluloid. Same gassing effect on carbon steel.

 

[Farmer J.]

Knife collectors have the same issues. They call the material Celluloid. Same gassing effect on carbon steel.

That's interesting, and explains why why so many old knives are more rusty that one would expect.

 

[Beerhippie]

Working from ladders, as I often do, I HATE round handles!

But I do like me some nice woodies... just not round.

Proto, bottom, has excellent non-rolling handles:

 

[Private Lugnutz]

They call the material Celluloid.

Celluloid (cue the Kinks song!) is actually a trademark that got genericized into the name for all nitrocellulose-based plastics. The tradename for the cellulosic plastic that Snap-on was using in the 70's is actually Tenite. There were dozens of plastic recipes with dozens of tradenames in the 1930's and 1940's, and later, and not all of them were cellulosic. Urea, phenol, and catalin were not cellulosic, and neither was resinoids like vinyl. It gets worse. Not all Bakelite Corp plastic was catalin. They used other formulas, but everything got conflated into one composition often misnamed as Bakelite. Earlier in the century, Snap-on's "Insuloid" handles were made of Pyralin (a DuPont tradename for a composite made with pyroxylin, which is also partially cellulosic) as was Herbrand's "Protecto-Grip".

Having said all that, cellulosic plastics do not do well in certain environments (humidity, especially) and some batches are just bad. Besides early disintegration, they often stink. Some versions of early Cellulose Acetate Butyrate are infamous for offgassing and stinking.

If you're curious who used what, I did a fairly exhaustive catalog study a few years ago, called, aptly, 'the Stinkdriver Study'.

If you want to read the methodology I used etc, go here.

If you just want to ogle the pretty chart...

 

[Beerhippie]

Ooh! Pretty chart!

 

[Mike'smeatshop]

Celluloid (cue the Kinks song!) is actually a trademark that got genericized into the name for all nitrocellulose-based plastics. The tradename for the cellulosic plastic that Snap-on was using in the 70's is actually Tenite. There were dozens of plastic recipes with dozens of tradenames in the 1930's and 1940's, and later, and not all of them were cellulosic. Urea, phenol, and catalin were not cellulosic, and neither was resinoids like vinyl. It gets worse. Not all Bakelite Corp plastic was catalin. They used other formulas, but everything got conflated into one composition often misnamed as Bakelite. Earlier in the century, Snap-on's "Insuloid" handles were made of Pyralin (a DuPont tradename for a composite made with pyroxylin, which is also partially cellulosic) as was Herbrand's "Protecto-Grip".

Having said all that, cellulosic plastics do not do well in certain environments (humidity, especially) and some batches are just bad. Besides early disintegration, they often stink. Some versions of early Cellulose Acetate Butyrate are infamous for offgassing and stinking.

If you're curious who used what, I did a fairly exhaustive catalog study a few years ago, called, aptly, 'the Stinkdriver Study'.

If you want to read the methodology I used etc, go here.

If you just want to ogle the pretty chart...

Great job Lugs. I was just fixing to do the same chart.

 

[SouthernIllinois]

Just bought these on eBay
My favorite screwdrivers

 

[Farmer J.]

Working from ladders, as I often do, I HATE round handles!

But I do like me some nice woodies... just not round.

Proto, bottom, has excellent non-rolling handles:

Round handles were easier to make in the lathe, but I put a flat spot on one side of them as an anti rolling feature. I don't work up ladders much, but I hate getting stabbed in the foot when round handles roll off a bench.. Those Proto ones are nice but unknown in the UK.

 

[ALLFAST]

That’s a classy solution!! BEAUTIFUL!

 

[ALLFAST]

Knife collectors have the same issues. They call the material Celluloid. Same gassing effect on carbon steel.

IIRC, off gassing has the same effect on vintage acoustic guitars when old cellulose edge bindings (and ancient pick guards) begin to fail/delaminate. The woods near the problem areas become compromised.