FAQ - A collection of selected questions and answers

To ask a question - send me an email - f.murch@sbcglobal.net

PS - pictures help

Q What was the Guarantee for antique Snap-on?

It changed, but it was basically one year until 1931. Then is changed and basically became a life time guarantee, with 3 years of exceptions: 1933, 1944 and 1945 where there was no guarantee. In this web site, under resources - all the guarantee statments are listed through WWII

Q Will you buy it?

This is boiled down from the bulk of the emails I receive. If it is old and affordable and I can transport it reasonably - Yes I will buy it. You can also sell tools to others and yes - I will help you do that.

Q What is it worth?

This is a tricky question. I will often give an opinion. Send me your photos and what you know about the tool (Part numbers and condition are important). There are a couple of issues.

Q Can I collect on a Snap on guarantee for an old tool?

Possibly, but you are likely to be disappointed.  The guarantees change over time. The original guarantees were for one year. The date stamps were actually stamped at the point of purchase to record this first year. This means there is some confusion in the date codes – a late date code on an early tool may just mean it sat in stock for a period of time.  During WWII the guarantee changed again. WWII tools generally do not carry any guarantee at all. If you have a guarantee and it is valid, but the tool is obsolete (most 40 + year old tools are) there is no way to replace the tool for the same tool – that tool does not exist any longer. You might get a modern tool (kind of defeats the purpose) or you might ask for a refund. A refund at a 1932 pricing level is not worth much. So by and large – the guarantee is not very useful.

Q What is “Broached” and “double broached”?

A broach is an opening, in sockets there are 2 generic openings: 1) a hex and 2) a square. The hex is today’s standard, but for farm equipment, cars in the teens and early 1920s square head sockets were common. A double broach is cutting 2 openings on top of one another.

Q Why uses a single broached socket or a double broached socket?

The reason to use a single broached socket is a grip along a longer edge. This is particularly important in undersized or misshaped bolt heads. With good, well sized and machined bolt heads a double broached socket will more easily slip on the has twice the angles where it will slip on the bolt. 

Question “Subject: just a question from an inquisitive 18 year old...Can you please tell me the difference between Snap on and blue point?"



I’ve just started collecting old or different Snap on tools I recently
found a 1943 1/2 in drive ratchet and a ferret F-9 ext.

Can you please tell me the difference between Snap on and blue point?

Great Question
And very likely – not such a great answer.
In 1920 Snap on had a very small number of tools (They started with 15 tools and 3 guys) – They could sell them, but the national distributors did not want to take them on. So they started selling through representative instead. Basically the establishment snubbed them, so they went out and found people to sell them – they built their own sales network.   In the end this resulted in the Snap on truck you see everywhere (it took a couple of steps).

Just to make sure I complete the truck story. There were no trucks early on. They took orders and then made them. In WWII there were shortages of everything and they switched from a made to order scheme to – They made as much as they could – gave it to the sales people who started hauling the inventory around (the Snap on “truck”) and sold until they ran out.

Early – when they built their own sales network, the representatives wanted more selection and offering than Snap on could offer. So Snap on bought tools and relabeled them. You guessed it – Blue Point.  The old pliers were bought and relabeled from “Forged Steel Corporation” in Pennsylvania; the wrenches came from someplace else.  The original name was lifted from the wrenches – “Blue Points” and you can see this name on the early wrenches.

Snap on grows in several ways: They sold their products and other people’s products, and they bought their suppliers. Over the years the Blue point line has just become a Snap on brand. They would buy there source and fold it into their factories.  There are many many examples. Sometimes you see tools marked "Blue Point" as an OEM product, sometimes a cheaper line, sometimes a test product and other times – just the same as the Snap on name. So today – it is (at least for me) confused.

Blue point means different things over time.   For a collector – Blue point or Blue Points can mean a rarer and more desirable early tool. Today, I would prefer Snap on.  I don’t think there is a modern case where Blue point means higher quality than Snap on. The opposite is sometimes true (Today Blue Point wrenches are cheaper and have less finish work in them)
 

I ran across your site last night while looking for parts for my father's tool boxes.  Great info! His health has been poor lately so I thought I would take his tool boxes home and completely go through them and fix/repair/replace them.  I'm sure he will be using them again real soon so it's more or less a get well gift.  Anyway...one of them is a KR537C and I'm looking for touch up paint (red) for it..can you buy matching red paint from an auto parts store or do you have to go through the company? 

   

Answer : Rustoleum red is general what I see used on older boxes

Question - Surprised to not see more Snap on torque wrench info

Answer : I would like to expand with a Torque Wrench section, but I don’t have enough of them or enough information – Send your pictures.