What do you do when you can't use your compoany name? You grind it off....

It doesn't show well in the picture, but the ground area is *plated* with the rest of the wrench...

Rusty do you think it is a Plomb after the lawsuit.

I'm not certain, The lawsuit was lost in 1948. Alloy dates this wrench style, and it is different than anything else with inset fractions opposide side from model number, as 1942-1945, but it says 'Los Angeles on it and AA's doesn't, and mine is cad plated...so I am confused at the moment ; P

The flipside is, the grinding looks just like the tappet wrench example on plombtools website....

I see lots of Plomb tools with the name ground off especially at the swap meet in Long Beach. That was close to the factory and a lot of aerospace companies had plants there. When the plants closed the tools seem to have been liquidated in large lots.

I suppose it's possible they were seconds for some reason or contract. I have seen pebble wrenches with he name ground off and later plated as well. Not a pretty sight.

Quote from: J.A.F.E. on October 23, 2011, 06:45:21 PM
I see lots of Plomb tools with the name ground off especially at the swap meet in Long Beach. That was close to the factory and a lot of aerospace companies had plants there. When the plants closed the tools seem to have been liquidated in large lots.

I suppose it's possible they were seconds for some reason or contract. I have seen pebble wrenches with he name ground off and later plated as well. Not a pretty sight.

Not seconds.  These are Plomb "lawsuit tools."  Check:

http://plombtools.com/LawsuitTools.aspx

From the same site, a listing of marks and their years of manufacturing:

http://plombtools.com/YearMarkings.aspx

Notice that the "LA" as opposed to "Los Angeles" mark is identified as a 1933 marking.

Lots of Plomb information on the site.

As an East Coast native, I only came to know about Plomb after I started going to flea markets looking for wrenches in the 1970's.  Is the history of Plomb tools given above the reason folks collect these tools? I have one Plomb ratchet up on the boards, but only because it is a good-looking tool.  Is there anyone out in Tool Talk who can define what it is about Plomb tools?  Or is it just one of those things, like Winchester and Keen Kutter, a matter of preference?

>Not seconds.  These are Plomb "lawsuit tools."  Check
>Notice that the "LA" as opposed to "Los Angeles" mark is identified as a 1933 marking.

But therein lies the problem, the last year for "Los Angeles' was 1939, the lawsuit was in 1948...
Did plomb really grind down 9 year old inventory?

My thoughts on these unbranded tools are these, they were sold to a factory at a special discount, no warranty implied or given, to make sure,  the name was removed.   Also it was less likely they might walk away from the factory since they are sans mfg. name.  Seen the same thing on blem tires, name and data buffed off before sale.  If it fails, it isn't ours!   Funny, every tool I saw in the army had the name intact, usually some manufacturers that I haven't heard of since. 

>every tool I saw in the army had the name intact, usually some manufacturers that I haven't heard of since. 

Upland forge was one of the companies that drove me nuts untill I finally figured out that they *only* made stuff for the government. There are no catalogs, no advertisments, they aren't listed in magazines under hand tools.....

But they are in the government pruchasing records....

I suppose there is a niche market for these types of companies, if you only make stuff for uncle sam, you don't have to make special changes to your standard design to meet government specifications, your standard design IS the government specification....

that wrench is a proto. i have a 1/2" proto los angeles wrench like that with the pebble fields on the back. it belonged to my grandfather.
sorry i don't have a picture.

It is in fact, an exact match to one of the Proto wrenches on Alloy, hmm, interesting...

Quote from: rusty on October 25, 2011, 08:42:45 PM
>every tool I saw in the army had the name intact, usually some manufacturers that I haven't heard of since. 

Upland forge was one of the companies that drove me nuts untill I finally figured out that they *only* made stuff for the government. There are no catalogs, no advertisments, they aren't listed in magazines under hand tools.....

But they are in the government pruchasing records....

I suppose there is a niche market for these types of companies, if you only make stuff for uncle sam, you don't have to make special changes to your standard design to meet government specifications, your standard design IS the government specification....

I know this thread is quite old,but I stumbled across this catalog for sale on E-bay just now.

Cool catalog! Hey Twertsy!

Quote from: Papaw on July 24, 2016, 10:01:05 PM
Cool catalog! Hey Twertsy!

I saw that...................

That is a PROTO wrench. I have several ones like that you can still make out the PROTO name.

EvilDr235