A Gift From john k: Blue-Point Supreme S2628 DOE Wrench

[lauver]

Gang,

Recently, john k held a wrench drawing here on Tool Talk. I was the lucky winner. The wrench in question is a Blue-Point Supreme S2628 13/16" x 7/8" DOE, and a beauty in bare metal.

Here's a couple of photos of the new wrench (top of photo) and some other Blue-Point Supremes I already had. All of these wrenches are from the same era, roughly 1955 - 1960, some are chromed and some are bare metal. They are all top notch wrenches from back in the good old days:





Thanks for the great wrench john k. I will give it a good home and see to it that it has a comfortable life in semi-retirement.

[Plyerman]

Good to see it found a nice home with some fellow family members.

I'm not familiar with Blue-Point....are they still around these days?

[bonneyman]

Isn't BP a "budget" line of Snap-On? Or used to be?

But they are nice tools.

[lauver]

Gang,

As far as I can tell, until 1960 or 1961, Blue-Point was Snap-on's wrench line.  From 1962 on, the wrenches were branded Snap-on and took on the smooth, full polish, modern look that we now know. 

When this change over occurred, Par-X and Blue-point became the value lines of tools; at some point (early 1980's?) the Par-X line was dropped and Blue-point continued as THE value line of tools.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.  Of course, I could be wrong; are there other theories?

[Chillylulu]

I think that sounds good to me.  Everything I have read  seems to point that way. Snapon had big socket contracts, d
It didnt work.  Started selling direct and developed their sales rep model.  That worked well, but they needed to fill out their line.  Thus Blue Point.  As SnapOn became recognized and had greater name recognition - make all best stuff snap-on to increase value.  Utilize Blue Point as value line - imho pretty good stuff still - comparabke to the SK stuff I love. Probably better, but don't tell me and ruin my illusion.

Chilly