Today's find at the flea was a run-of-the-mill one dollar Craftsman 4-inch wrench, in recoverable condition (top picture). Or so I thought.
Only when I began restoring this jasper, did I discover how different 4-inchers have become. Embossed on the front side of the wrench, besides Craftsman, was "100 mm" and code letters, a "K" and a "V". The standard "4 IN." legend is now embossed on the backside of the wrench, with the message "Forged USA" (leaving out the word "in"), and another set of code letters, a "W" and an "F".
Today's wrench differs from the older Craftsman 4-incher I have. Pictures show some differences. Folks didn't fear prepositions like "in" in years past, for example.
The other differences are in weight and length, the 100mm wrench having less of both. The 100 mm wrench vs. the older 4-inch wrench compare as follows: 1.25 ozs. (100 mm) vs. 1.4 ozs (4-inch), and 4 3/8" (100 mm) vs. 4 9/16" (4-inch). For the record, today's wrench is 108 mm long, and the older Craftsman is 109.5 mm long. Four inches is equivalent to 101.6 mm +/-.
I spent $1 on today's modern 100mm 4-incher, so I'm not complaining. I wonder, however, can anyone explain to me how is less more, and why is Sears writing code on its wrench?
