Ran into a 75 yr. old man in N. WI having a yard sale and asked him where all the "guy" stuff was and he led me to his shop. I spent the next 90 minutes picking through all his tools and chatting with him. Very interesting gentleman, but the chain smoking got to me after a while.. The only rule was I cold only take what he had duplicates of(for the most part, anyway). Ended up spending about $60 on everything for the day at his place and 4 or 5 others, and will take maybe 3 posts to get it all in here, but the PowrKraft combo wrenches I can't find any info on and that's where I'd like to start. They are not in the best shape for sure, but the design is one I've not seen before. He also had a small 1/4" PK box with ratchet, driver, 2 extensions and several PK sockets, metric, star, and SAE, that was fairly complete. too. The Craftsman wood gouges looked old as well. The ratchet # was4168 00T and the driver was an 84H4760. The rest of the top row is a P-K DBE, a small Wards Mastr(sic) DBE that the logo seemed printed on there as opposed to cast in, then a 4945 15T DBE, then the 6 combos(the 1" one had a number of4930-32T if that helps ID the set), and a Lakeside 84-4700 6" adj. that looks like it's never been used.
Second row Had a Bell Systems screwdriver sneak in there made by Bridgeport, then the 4 Craftsman wood gouges(any clue on their age??) #s 2851,2854,2858, and 2862. There were another 5 gouges in the set, but no markings on them. The black thing looked like some sort of cable puller and the two knock off PH screwdrivers were made in Germany.
The next photo has a couple wrenches from a consignment shop in Wabeno and that's where I scored the Merit DOE. The top has 4 no namers and a Fordson wrench with the circle M stamped beside it,then two stamped AETNA(insurance co. promos???) wrenches, the "James ML-55, a Wakefield #45, and the #2 stamped DOE, The pliers row includes an L-26 Crescent, a Cruso, a Hudson, and a Krautter, then there's a 1020 Truecraft combo, a Truecraft 5/8" socket head/OE, and a FC-16 SK. Then a DOE Herbrand 624-A, a DBE Ford Starter wrench from Indestro, German no name DOE, the Merit AF DOE, the Vlchek W 2830, the Tiger 3033B, and the newer MATCO WCL282 7/8 combo.
The last two photos were a bit of a heart breaker. The gentlman had an old HD Crasftsman tool box with this Bonney 3/4" drive ratchet that was no working well at all, and one Bonney socket mixed in with several Craftsman 3/4" drive sockets and a couple of Protos and a WIliams to boot. AAs you can see, the ratchet drive is not in good repair with the internal spring brokenand only 1 ball came out of the mechanism. Bonneyman said parts for it would be tough to get and it may end up as a wall hanging eventually. The ratchet number is 4285.
I'm still soaking a few of the rusty gems, so it may be a day or so before AI put the rest of it up here. The Utica Tools pliers/cutter is interesting to say the least.
A successful two days of sniffing around in the Northwoods for sure.
DM&FS
