Snap on goverment tools?

[bigray]

HELLO OUT THERE. Im new to this site and have a question. I have a K55r top box and 2 kr420 middle sections with a what i think is a kr350 bottom box." will tell story later when i can figure how to post pictures" Question is I have a lot of tools that have the goverment marks on them.How did the mechanics get these tools and why were they marked that way? I figure there was a metal shortage because of ww2. does someone have the story behind this? Will try and get some pictures posted of this stuff too. THISIS A GREAT SITE,

[Frank Murch]

Some of it is clowdy, but we can piece together a lot of the story

During WWII every government contract, every ship, airplane repair center, and factory used tools built on government contract. There was no date stamp that was for non-emergency or non-governement contract. These tools flooded the market and then were sold surplus after the war. So the tools from WWII still are extremely common.

After the war Snap on continued to supply tools to the US Military and all that survived were sold surplus. There are a lot of stories of Navy tools being replaced and the older Snap on tools just thrown overboard. Europe is full of WWII surplus.

What I would love to see is a listing (a catalog) for the government sale markings. We all know of the FV ratchets, but there is a lot of stuff out there

[bigray]

Were they all stamped with the letter G on them? Were they only made that one year?

[snapmom]

1944 was a "E" 1945 was a "G". 1943 code is very rare, could be 1943 was a "E" too.