Hargrave, Craftsman Spiral, and Vaco Screwdrivers

[dimwittedmoose51]

I may have mentioned these in passing in the past, but further research is further confusing me.  Time for some help from the experts.

1. The Hargrave screwdriver no one seems to know anything about, so I took some pictures of  the faint but legible logo on the shank.  The chrome thing on the handle looks like an old bathroom fixture that someone cut off and slipped over the wood due to splitting issues.
2. The Craftsman  6906 Spiral Yankee style screwdriver with its beautiful and un-flawed dark red wooden handle.  It says made in West Germany.  Went to the Craftsman Community to find out more about it, and they were helpful.  One guy seemed to think that it was the tool that Germans used on the Panzer tank way back when, but then he digressed into a Nazi-slamming diatribe and, well, the credibility sorta waned from there.  If nothing else, could someone tell me which drive mechanism this tool uses, as I have no bits for it and peering down inside the collet, It's impossible for me to tell what's spozed to go in there.
3. This VACO A 86 screwdriver.  Can't find out anything about it either, but it's such an unusual design, that I kept it and now would like your input on it.  It's about 6" long if that helps.

Thanks as always

DM&FS

[lbgradwell]

2. The Craftsman  6906 Spiral Yankee style screwdriver with its beautiful and un-flawed dark red wooden handle.  It says made in West Germany.  Went to the Craftsman Community to find out more about it, and they were helpful.  One guy seemed to think that it was the tool that Germans used on the Panzer tank way back when, but then he digressed into a Nazi-slamming diatribe and, well, the credibility sorta waned from there.  If nothing else, could someone tell me which drive mechanism this tool uses, as I have no bits for it and peering down inside the collet, It's impossible for me to tell what's spozed to go in there.

I inherited the same screwdriver from my grandfather. I am confident you will find the true model number to be 6907.

These screwdrivers use the bits with 7/32" shanks. It might push your Nazi-slamming friend over the edge, but you can get very high-quality Japanese replacement bits made by Vessel from Lee Valley.

http://www.leevalley.com/en/wood/page.aspx?p=66021&cat=1,43411,43417&ap=2

[lbgradwell]

1. The Hargrave screwdriver no one seems to know anything about, so I took some pictures of  the faint but legible logo on the shank.  The chrome thing on the handle looks like an old bathroom fixture that someone cut off and slipped over the wood due to splitting issues.

Try searching for "Cincinnati Tool Company". They owned the Hargrave name...

[dimwittedmoose51]

Thanks.  I can only go by the 6906 stamped next to "Germany at the wood handle end of the collet.  No other makings other than the Craftsman logos photographed above.  Japanese bits it IS!!!

BTW, found this spiral at an estate sale in Little Rock last month.  It was like 2 or 3 dollars, so it wasn't really gambling....

DM&FS

[lbgradwell]

I can only go by the 6906 stamped next to "Germany at the wood handle end of the collet.

Hmm. I always assumed there was only one model this size.

I hope the shank size is the same as the 6907!

[rusty]

The Hargrave screwdriver is uncommon, but as libgradwell sais, (H) Hargrave was Cincinatti Tool Co's selling brand name. Mostly peopl e find clamps made by them, but the made other tools long ago...

I doubt the spiral screw driver ever saw use on a panzer, unless someone was restoring one a decade after the war....German made tools flooded the country after the war as German tried to rebuild the economy by exporting low cost goods...

There was a thread on the old forum about which bits fit the craftsman spirals, but it's gone and i don't remember, except it is the same as one of the common ones and they are still available...
(Lee Valley probably can tell you which bits fit)

The Vaco may be an odd design for electronics use, they were popular for that and there are many weird designs of them that fit into various things to adjust them...

(Has anyone ever seen an old Vaco catalog?)

[lbgradwell]

One guy seemed to think that it was the tool that Germans used on the Panzer tank way back when, but then he digressed into a Nazi-slamming diatribe and, well, the credibility sorta waned from there.

LOL! You weren't kidding!

It's been a long time since I visited the Craftsman Club site, so I thought I'd find your thread over there...

ok i found it its was covered in the german army armored unit manual for all panzer tanks and tigers since i am a ww2 military historian i went looking and i found the picture of it being used by a panzer mechnaic during a repair routine on a tiger mk1 ....steve

i know but i try and not to do so much on the germans due to what they did to several of my family members during ww2 ie: my aunts, cousins , and other members of my family, and my aunts father was tourtored in a camp and disfirgured by the nazi's and my grandma survied the woreset camp i still have a very hard time saying THAT name and i wont say it my gandma may she rest in peace was tattoed on her arm and if she did didnt dig her way out and get to the underground i wouldnt be here and neither would the rest of my family our family came from poland, warsaw and krakow we lost roughly about 18 members from our family i want to take the family back home one day and go to the camp and see the book with our family name i still to this day carry that monkey on my back and i have to put those ghosts to rest but suzanne my wife has said that i'll walk in there and man and come out a total mess and crying because of what they did to us but i need to honor my family like everyone else you know i dont hate anyone i was stationed in germany but the nazi's i hate with every part of me yes they are great craftsman and do some of the great machine work but when i was stationed in germany i met some of the very nicest people and they were very nice to me and all but i remember when my grandma told me when she got here to the states she changed our name and over to catholic so he couldnt find us.,.,.......steve

DAMN! Here is a guy who would benefit from a dictionary and remedial grammar lessons. That second bit might be the worst run-on sentence ever!

As to the Germans using your screwdriver on Panzer tanks... well, let's just say that would be incorrect. There may have been spiral ratchet screwdrivers used by the German military but why this guy could believe they'd be using Craftsman tools is a bit of a mystery!

Adam ought to have know this, but those screwdrivers first appeared in the 1964 catalogue...

[bonneyman]

I abhor the Nazi mindset, but nobody can knock German engineering skills.
I'd love to see you get that Yankee apart and show pics of the internals - just to see how they match up to the USA and Asian drivrers I have.

[scottg]

I think the Vaco is for adjusting the tiny potentiometers on electronic circuits. These are usually set once and done. But I think they are usually adjusted when the circuit is hot.
So a long plastic handle for safety.
  yours Scott   

[dimwittedmoose51]

Thanks everyone.  1964 sounds a lot closer than 1944, especially since we've already done the thread on West Germany not existing prior to the end of WWII.  I will continue to grabv tools that I've never heard of, it's part of the addiction.  Saw a set of German VW Gedore tools on ebay bring over $200 today.  Are they the real deal too???  I've been passing them up...until now??

DM&FS