PLOMB TOOLS

Home     About us     Contact us     Links     Site Map      
1928-1929
1930-1939
Automotive Tools
Aviation Tools
Big and Little
Body Shop
British Tools
Buick Tools
Captain Boudinot
Catalogs
Cool Finds
Company History
Contract Tools
Crescent Wrenches
Crowfoot Wrenches
Earliest Chisel
Earliest Crowfoot
Early Tools
Early Wrenches
Fake Plomb
Files
Finishes
Ford Tools
Garden Tools
Hammers
Hand Forged Pliers
Hinge Handles
Hudson Tools
Lawsuit Tools
Looks Like New
Los Angeles Factory
Lucky #13
Match Books
Metric Tools
More Rogues
Mystery Wrench
New Old Stock
New Sockets
Non Standard Drives
Odd Tools
Oldest Wrench
P and C
Packing Hook
Pins and Badges
Pliers
Plomb Logos
Plomb Proto Wrenches
Pocket Screwdrivers
PT CO Drill
Puller Sets
Ranger Tools
Ratchets
Rosie the Riveter
Rogue Gallery
Salesman's Stickers
Scrapers
Spring Tester
Stamping Gallery
Stampings
Stone Chisel
Todays Catch
Tool Boards
Tool Boxes
Training Films
Unfinished Tools
Unknowns Found
War Finish or WF
War Finish Plaque
WF-38 Ratchets
What Is It
Whitworth Tools
Wilpen
Wilpen Origin
Wright Field Catalog
Year Markings
Plomb War Time Tools for the British
 
A collector from the UK sent us this picture, along with information on BSF tools.  Thank you, Dave!
 

  

These wrenches were sent over during the war and certainly date from that period.  I believe that they were part of the war effort and not intended for retail, although they have no government makings to show that they were armed forces issue.  I have several trade catalogues from the immediate post war period and have never seen Plomb tools listed in them.

 


The difference between BS and Whitworth sizes is that the head size of the bolt/nut is always one size larger for the BS spanner (e.g., 3/16 Whitworth = 1/4 BS).  Whitworth and BSF are 2 thread types; Whitworth is coarse and BSF is British Standard Fine.  Both thread angles are the same at 55 degrees, but the pitch is different.

 

 

 

Reed adds:

 

Plomb made a few Whitworth sized tools for the retail market right at the tail end of the Plomb name but there are no catalog listings until the first Proto catalog in 1949. The addition of British sizes to the Plomb line was due to the surge in popularity of British cars & motorcycles in America after WWII.

 

 

 

A visitor named James sent this comment:  

 

The wrench shown in the photograph on the "British Tools" page is actually for the "British Association" (more commonly called "BA") thread range, rather than BSF or BSW. Further information on the BA and other British thread types can be found at: http://www.britishfasteners.com/threads 

 

 

 

After reviewing all of the fastener types, Bob says:

 

With seven different types of British fasteners, no wonder somebody invented the Crescent wrench!