Recommendation? Old wrenches. Brands any good?

ONEBIGBOWIE

ONEBIGBOWIE

Joined
Sep 9, 2015
Messages
136
I got a bunch of old wrenches and was wondering if any of these were good brands. I'll start off by saying the older Craftsman is a hell of a lot better than the new stuff. Even before Lowe's bought em out. Guy at work who runs a part time body shop calls em crapsman
S-K tools
Benchtop
Fuller
Armstrong
Indestro
Vlchek
Last one sounds Russian but says made in USA.
 
I started as a mechanic almost 50 years ago. S-K is the only brand that I recognize and those are good tools.

There is a lot of discussion these days about tool brands and lots of people like to bash SnapOn. There doesn't seem to be as much difference in quality between tool brands these days as there was in the old days. There were a lot of junky tools 50 years ago that were marginally not usable.
 
Don't know about now-a-days, but I know S-K at one point was right up there with MAC, SnapOn, Matco, and older Craftsman. I don't know what the quality is like today, but if the SK's are from the the 40's-80's they should be really good quality.

No clue on the other brands.
 
Yep same here. SK is top notch. The others I have no clue never heard of them, and I’ve been around a lot of old tools.
 
S-K used to be one of the top hand tool brands ... I haven't bought any for years but assume they are still decent quality even if not all USA made ...

what used to be Craftsman Pro tools is now Armstrong I believe ...

the rest I don't know at all ...

and a lot of people bash any non USA made hand tools ... which I understand to a point ... but it isn't so easy to throw them all in one lump and say they are junk if not USA made ... shrugs*
 
JJ_Colt45 said:
a lot of people bash any non USA made hand tools
Click to expand...
its damn near the opposite with cars. off topic for a minute, i think american cars have good engines, mostly the V8s and diesel truck engines although the american v6 has improved a hell of a lot recently. them base dodge cars i heard were bad back in the early 2000s (se sxt). i think its lack of good materials that take away from the value and reliability. nothing ruins a big muscle car with 800+ horsepower more than an econobox interior. i don't mind cheaper materials for that stuff as long as the important parts are good. but for people wanting to spend big money on performance it can be a deal breaker. the only 2 exceptions i've seen are the corvettes and the ford GT (not the mustang, the twin turbo V6 track car).
 
Vlchek was a very good tool line years ago.
http://alloy-artifacts.org/vlchek-story.html
Many car makers used Vlchek tools in the tool kits supplied with cars for decades, from pre WW1 right into the 60s.
These tools are what you would have found in a depression era pre WW2 GM car, all are Vlchek except the spark plug wrench, which has its own GM part number.
HyRyYyyl.jpg
 
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There is one pair of pliers that I plan to have until the day I die. I have a set of robo grips that my dad owned, those pliers will bite on anything. If the wrench or socket is stripped the robo grips get it done.
 
ONEBIGBOWIE said:
I got a bunch of old wrenches and was wondering if any of these were good brands. I'll start off by saying the older Craftsman is a hell of a lot better than the new stuff. Even before Lowe's bought em out. Guy at work who runs a part time body shop calls em crapsman
S-K tools
Benchtop
Fuller
Armstrong
Indestro
Vlchek
Last one sounds Russian but says made in USA.
Click to expand...

Vlchek is great, made stuff for Craftsman in the early years.
Indestro is great, love their stuff.
S-K of course is great they're an icon still in business today and that's probably why most who commented know of them and not the others.


Armstrong is great their Hexite wrenches were unsurpassed in strength, sadly I believe they're now owned by Apex tool group and This tool line might have been discontinued in the past few years.
Fuller was once an okay brand but starting in the 70's most of their tools were imported garbage.
I have a 3 piece set of Japanese Fuller adjustable wrenches my grandfather bought in the 70's and the quality is as good as anything else but I know of no other Fuller wrenches that are any good. I'm not sure if they had any US made mechanic type tools.
Bench top tools were cheap Japanese tools, I broke a couple of Bench top sockets a few years ago.

I'm not a mechanic just a tool enthusiast / accumulator who frequents a forum with lots of knowledgeable people who have helped me a lot over the years, I trust their opinions / experiences and have even experienced some of it myself. Was told some things I had acquired were junk but looked fine to me and I learned first hand that they were right.
 
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ONEBIGBOWIE said:
There is one pair of pliers that I plan to have until the day I die. I have a set of robo grips that my dad owned, those pliers will bite on anything. If the wrench or socket is stripped the robo grips get it done.
Click to expand...
I always thought they were kind of Gimmicky but eventually changed my mind.
My dad had a two piece set he got for Christmas years ago and since he never really used them he let me have the smaller pair.
They came in handy one time about a year ago so I decided to put them in my house / go box and they've came in handy a number of times since.
These were available from Craftsman, Rigid, and a few other brands.
The US made ones are good, but the imports from Irwin or kobalt or whatever are junk.
 
Btw keep an eye out for these other brands, being less well known these days you can often get a better deal on them.
 
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