While there’s not always a lot more to post in this thread, when I find something new, I’ll be sure to keep the information up to date. Anyway, I recently picked up a set (1/2”, 3/8” and 1/4”) of Type 1 ratchets. These ratchets aren’t overly common, but every once in a while I come across one for the right price. Because the Type 1 had a few variations that were discussed earlier in the thread, I seem to gravitate to them and try to acquire them when possible. After a few years, I now have several examples in all three sizes. So, every time I get a ratchet, I take it apart, clean it, lubricate it and then reassemble it. As for the three Type 1 ratchets I just got, the routine was the same. I started with the 1/2”, then the 3/8” and last but not least, the 1/4”. When I disassembled the 1/2” and 3/8” ratchets, I didn’t note anything unusual. When I got to the 1/4” model I didn’t initially notice that its pawl was “bat wing” shaped. It wasn’t until I started to reassemble it that I noticed that the pawl was not rounded on the bottom. If you’ve ever taken apart a Type 1, then you know that those rounded bottom pawls are tricky in terms of getting them back into the head of the ratchet. So as I was putting the bat wing pawl back into ratchet, it dawned on me that it went in without any trouble. It was then that I noticed its shape was different. It was a bat wing, which by its design is easier to re-install.
The bat wing pawl was used in Type 2 and later Craftsman teardrop ratchets. To the best of my knowledge, the rounded pawls were only characteristic to the Type 1 ratchets. Well, that’s not entirely true. It appears that user friendly design changes were being made as early as the Type 1 ratchets. After finding the bat wing pawl, I took a look at a few of my other Type 1, 1/4” drive ratchets. To my surprise, I already had another one with the bat wing pawl that I hadn’t noticed when I previously took it apart. If you look at the photo below, the ratchets on the ends have the bat wing pawls, while the two in the middle have the rounded pawls. I think it’s safe to say that examples with the rounded pawls came earlier in the Type 1 production. The other thing I noticed was that the tabs on the ends of the directional lever retention springs were significantly longer on the ratchets with the rounded pawls. (See the second photo.) Those ratchets fitted with the bat wing pawls were much shorter. I’d have to look at more examples, but that might be an external telltale in determining if the ratchet has the rounded or bat wing pawl prior to disassembling it.
Now you’re probably wondering if the same can be said of the 1/2” and 3/8” Type 1 ratchets. Well, after checking more than a dozen 1/2” and 3/8” versions in total, I didn’t find a single bat wing pawl. Maybe I need to look at more examples, or the bat wing pawl was only fitted to the 1/4” version. For now, I don’t really know.
Jim C.