After recently purchasing a snap on ratchet and finding out that some of their hand tools, to include their ratchets, are no longer made in the USA, I started thinking about a few things.
I thought about my grandfather and how he always fixed things. He never had a lot of money or possessions, but after he died, my grandmother gave me his half inch drive craftsman spinner/speed handle. Now, I'm not going to get on a made in the USA quality vs imported, but the quality of that old craftsman driver is amazing. I'm sure I'll be able to pass it down to my grandkids. I don't know I could say the same thing about a similar craftsman product made today.
Anyway, to make a long story not as long, I decided to buy older tools instead of buying new. I needed an extra set of wrenches and the old Plomb brand had always fascinated me. And, if I can find them and they've lasted since WWII, they'll probably last through anything I ever do to them. I've decided to slowly piece together a wrench set from whatever comes up on ebay and other forums I visit. Here's what I have so far.
As you can see, some wrenches like the one inch combo are in almost perfect condition. Others are not. I thought about just finding what I can and then replacing them with better examples as they come a long, but I'm wondering if I could instead have the wrenches refinished somehow. There's clearly a finish that has worn off on a few of them. If I can't do the original finish, I've thought of chrome or duracoat too.
Any thoughts/ideas?
I thought about my grandfather and how he always fixed things. He never had a lot of money or possessions, but after he died, my grandmother gave me his half inch drive craftsman spinner/speed handle. Now, I'm not going to get on a made in the USA quality vs imported, but the quality of that old craftsman driver is amazing. I'm sure I'll be able to pass it down to my grandkids. I don't know I could say the same thing about a similar craftsman product made today.
Anyway, to make a long story not as long, I decided to buy older tools instead of buying new. I needed an extra set of wrenches and the old Plomb brand had always fascinated me. And, if I can find them and they've lasted since WWII, they'll probably last through anything I ever do to them. I've decided to slowly piece together a wrench set from whatever comes up on ebay and other forums I visit. Here's what I have so far.
As you can see, some wrenches like the one inch combo are in almost perfect condition. Others are not. I thought about just finding what I can and then replacing them with better examples as they come a long, but I'm wondering if I could instead have the wrenches refinished somehow. There's clearly a finish that has worn off on a few of them. If I can't do the original finish, I've thought of chrome or duracoat too.
Any thoughts/ideas?
