What does "WF" and the words "War Finish" mean when stamped on Plomb tools?  This question is continually asked by the uninitiated.  We do know for a fact that:

(1) WF was used to precede the identifying number on hundreds of thousands of Plomb tools that were used by the Armed Forces during WWII. These numbers did not correspond to the Plomb catalog numbers.

(2) The words "War Finish" were stamped on some Plomb tools produced for the civilian market during the WWII era and carried the standard Plomb catalog numbers.

(3) A light gray dusty finish was used on practically all of the WF numbered tools and on some of the tools made for civilian use during WWII.  This often is referred to as a Cadmium finish.  Note of caution here from Wayne:  Don't wire brush that coating without a mask, its toxic!

(4) Wright Field (Now Wright, Patterson AFB) near Dayton, Ohio, was the location of a major War Department contracting organization before and during WWII. This organization executed major contracts with civilian industry.  Wright Field also received goods and distributed them to our forces throughout the world. Wright Field ---- W.F.

(5) The Plomb Tool Company has a consistent history of stamping their contracted tools with the name or abbreviation of the contracting authority.

(6) Publications issued by the Plomb Tool Company that are available, have referred to the WF series tools as Wright Field Tools.

(7) To prevent spies from gleaning information from the patterns of government purchases, orders placed during war time often used aliases to obscure their contents.  This would explain why there are no WF numbered catalogs in circulation.  (Catalogs may still exist, buried in government archives.) 

There is no doubt that the tools produced under contract to the Government during the big war were not designed or manufactured with the thought of a lifetime of service. They were not guaranteed, other than to meet certain sometimes ridged government specifications.  Consequently, besides other considerations, the manufacturer would not want to use the standard catalog number which would imply a lifetime Guarantee. 

Restrictions were imposed on all manufacturing for the civilian market in order that sufficient amounts of critical materials were continually available to meet the requirements of the war effort. With this in mind it is then reasonable to assume that the "War Finish" imprinted on civilian tools indicate that these tools did not necessarily meet the material standards set by the company during peacetime, when there was access to bountiful supplies.  If the words “War Finish” were just related to the texture and appearance of the exterior, the stamping would be redundant, and not worth the added expense.

Wright Field was the source of purchase contracts and also the destination for the finished material, so what better indicator than the “WF” preceding a non-company number.  The contracting agent for the government could easily place their order using Plomb's standard catalog, with the company translating the numbers to the WF series.  There are no known catalogs which contain listings or descriptions of the WF series of tools.

We firmly believe that “WF” and “War Finish” did not indicate the color and texture of the tool.  “WF” meant “Wright Field”, the contract source and destination of the Government contracted tool. “War Finish” on tools for the civilian market, or other wartime contracts, was an indication that the materials used in the tool’s manufacture were of a lesser quality, due to wartime scarcities.