I got called a couple of days ago by a seller who worked for Ford and a couple of other car manufactures in the 40's and 50's. Even though he has about 4 triple stacked tool boxes full of old snap on and other brands, he was particular on what he was willing to let go. Preferring keeping the old premium Snap On he let go all of his various Craftsman, Plomb, S-K, and Proto's. Out of the 100's of tools I purchased one of my favorites is this Craftsman ratchet. Here is a snip it from Alloy Artifacts.
Craftsman "BT" 1/2-drive reversible ratchet, marked with "Drop Forged" forged into the handle, and with "Made in U.S.A." forged into the reverse. The head is stamped with the Craftsman block logo, and the small "BT" manufacturing code is (faintly) visible between the two screws at the bottom of the head.
The overall length is 9.6 inches, and the finish is plain steel or nickel plating.
This ratchet has a rather unusual arrangement for the shift lever, in which the lever arm passes through a hole in the forged body so that it can be actuated from the opposite side. Readers familiar with the Vlchek Tool Company will recognize this immediately as the Vlchek WSSR10 Reversible Ratchet, and a comparison of the photographs shows that the tools are basically identical except for the markings. Vlchek had been offering this ratchet model since about 1934.
Apart from the unusual shift lever, the ratchet is a well made but conventional dual-pawl design with a 28-tooth drive gear.
