Kipton Palm Ratchet

[J.A.F.E.]

This is a newer item dating from the mid to late 50's. Still, a nice item to me. I had this posted on Tool Talk v1 so i thought I'd repost here on v2.

I stumbled into this little item at a swap. Something about it just intrigued me. I can guess what that something is though - it's a tool and it's a ratchet. It's made of aluminum and is 3/8 drive. It still works quite well and I used it and plan to continue to do so in the future.





Kipton Industries. A new name for me.That and the stamping is a little sloppy.



The dual pawl setup looks very familiar - even the cone springs looks like Plomb.



The gear appears to laminated metal



A little research and I had the answer.

At the bottom of page 170 in Pop Science, December, 1954 "New Tools"

http://books.google.com/books?id=1yADAAAAMBAJ&pg=RA1-PA170&lpg=RA1-PA170&dq=kipton+industries&source=bl&ots=J3MoutyjCd&sig=EHKMLA0e22xk0DbO3DF6utn4K5Y&hl=en&ei=Lpj3Sun8G8XQ8QaIvKXzCQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CBIQ6AEwBDgK#v=onepage&q=kipton%20industries&f=false

And an ad on page 89 in Popular Mechanics, November, 1956.

http://books.google.com/books?id=ouEDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA89&lpg=PA89&dq=kipton+industries+palm-grip&source=bl&ots=ynU29YlRl-&sig=amV4cGzMu9MSQhdh9zcrFr0USdo&hl=en&ei=8Zz3SvPaNoea8AbKwr3zCQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CAgQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=kipton%20industries%20palm-grip&f=false

I would imagine finding the accessories would be pretty much impossible. But I would not mind finding all 40 of them.

[Tool Pants]

Here is a 1/2" Walden.  The palm part is steel, and it has a heft to it.  The ratchet part is the same design  used on the newer Walden ratchets.