Pear head Blackhawk ratchet? 49996-3

rusty65 · Feb 4, 2013

Hello every one i am trying to figure out if this Blackhawk ratchet was made before the new Britain buy out or after the new Britain buy out just curious as i personally collect pre-new Britain Blackhawk tools. Also i bought the ratchet from a local pawn shop for a buck along with a 3/4 drive snappy socket with the same owners marks and if it helps the snappy socket is from 1947.
The ratchet with other Blackhawks.

cover plate

261AFCAC-0A21-4745-8CBE-113646999798-2048-0000011BE1D51E24_zpsb01b4325.jpg

BA430B5A-C2A7-4149-AD6F-1D95860E5B05-2048-0000011BDEDA30ED_zps35eb7278.jpg

The internals 32 teeth.

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davesnothere · Feb 4, 2013

While i cant help you with your question, i can say that a buck for that ratchet = you ****.

930dreamer · Feb 4, 2013

Nice score for a dollar. :thumbup:

CRTDI · Feb 5, 2013

rusty65 said:
Hello every one i am trying to figure out if this Blackhawk ratchet was made before the new Britain buy out or after the new Britain buy out just curious as i personally collect pre-new Britain Blackhawk tools. Also i bought the ratchet from a local pawn shop for a buck along with a 3/4 drive snappy socket with the same owners marks and if it helps the snappy socket is from 1947.

I like to collect some of these same era Blackhawk tools. This is the first one I've seen of these. It's really interesting to see the circular grooved handle with this ratchet head shape. A 49996 ratchet in a 1953 catalog is depicted as a Bald-Head style ratchet and there is no other ratchet that I can see with a pear shaped head.

Is there a date code on the handle like your Free-Wheelers have? If not, and we take meaning of the -3 in the 49936-3 model no. to be the date code, then I'm thinking this is from 1963, which I believe by this time to be New Britain.

With all of the trouble this ratchet is giving you, I might be willing to take it off your hands.....aw schucks, I'd might even give you double what you paid for it.....

rusty65 · Feb 6, 2013

Their are no marks on the handle portion only on the face plate. I almost wonder if it was a contract production ratchet because the chrome looks pre new Britain era to me and the handle rings look machined in rather then molded in like one of my other blackhawk ratchets which is indeed new Britain era production. Thank you crtdi for answering some of my questions. Man this ratchet just keeps stumping me

at least it's something fun to learn about.

CRTDI · Feb 7, 2013

A lot of the older Blackhawk stuff is interesting to collect, but sometimes information on particular items is very tough to come by. I guess it's part of the allure for me as well.

Your new "mystery" ratchet certainly does appear to have a different finish as compared to the Free-Wheelers in your pic. For the Blackhawk pieces that I have, the chrome quality and finishes are quite inconsistent actually. Some intentional due to war time production, but overall I would say that Blackhawk had some pretty obvious issues over the years with their plating processes.

What is the date code on your circular grooved ratchet that you believe to be New Britian era? What is your understanding for the year that New Britain bought out Blackhawk? I originally thought it was 1955.

There is some compelling discussion here to suggest otherwise:

http://garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=70927&highlight=blackhawk+catalog

jabberwoki · Feb 7, 2013

Ha CRTDI must be sweating from the jowels by now!!

woody 73 · Feb 7, 2013

Interesting 1953 or 1955 date; you might be lucky and the original owner bought their tools in the late 40's.

rusty65 · Feb 7, 2013

I personally believe Blackhawk was bought out in 1953 but continued production in the same factory up till 1954. When then I believe they moved production to the new Britain factory and started back up in 1955.
The date code from the new Britain era ratchet is 1967 or at least their is a 67 stamped on the ratchet body and also the ratchet has new Britain's 60 tooth design so it pre dates the 45 tooth design so that in itself also points to early production. Ok enough chat here are some pictures.

One thing to note in the picture is the lack of the note keep oiled on the new Britain era rat. I have also noted that every pre-New Britain Blackhawk ratchet that I have held has that note keep oiled.

Showing how the new Britain era ratchet has molded in handle rings vs. the machined in rings of the free wheel.

Just a quick group photo. The 3/8 freewheel has a 1953 date code. The 3/8 bald head has a 1951 date code. And the two 1/2 freewheels have the date codes of 1946 and 1943.

CRTDI · Feb 8, 2013

Very nice collection.. :thumbup:

I've always liked the look of the round head New Britain era ratchet. Sure looks like they tried to keep the Bald-Head style intact. I certainly didn't know this was 60 tooth ratchet....cool stuff!

In looking at your 1/2" drive round head and pear shaped ratchets I did pick up one other clue that might date the pear head as New Britain era. If you'll notice on the drive lugs, both of these incorporate a standard retention ball. Both of your Free-Wheelers should have what Blackhawk referred to as their highly touted "Lock-On" feature for use with their own specially designed sockets. I'm thinking that this is a feature New Britain dropped... :dunno:

Here are some of my ratchets from a posting on The Garage Gazette a little while back. I try to collect mainly late 30's to late 40's stuff, but I believe a couple of the Bald-Heads may be early 50's and to my knowledge are all pre New Britain era.

http://www.thegaragegazette.com/index.php?topic=16184.msg208845#msg208845

rusty65 · Feb 8, 2013

Very nice collection crtdi. :thumbup:

I really like your 3/4 drive freewheel and very nice 7/16 drive set those would have to be my favorites if I had to pick a design.
Also one thing to note about the lock on feature is that it was in fact deleted off the 3/8 drive ratchet so maybe they went away with the lock on feature all the way before being bought out to try and reinvent their product line as a last ditch effort. Because their is one thing I have noticed is that most Blackhawk tools appear to have been made in batches rather then yearly. I have noticed that most 3/8 bald heads are from 1951 or 1949.
Also the ratchet mechanism in the pear head Blackhawk doesn't feel like a New Britain mechanism to my under standing New Britain only made up to a 20 tooth ratchet and the Blackhawk is 32. And I might add the ratchet feels like a higher toothed bald-head when I compare it to my 3/8 bald-head.
I have a 11/16 to 1 1/4 Blackhawk socket set if interested I could post pics up of it and I have 4 wrenches which are pre blackhawk-Armstrong to the best of my knowledge. Thank you for all the help I hope you have a good day.

rusty65 · Aug 3, 2013

Update:
I went back to the same pawn shop I bought the blackhawk pear head at and found a deep blackhawk socket with the same owner marks as the ratchet and both of the tools have a 1953 date code and are not lock on. The socket has traditional detents. So why would a company that only made lock on detents produce a socket with regular grooved detents. I believe they made a short run of these non lock on tools to try and save sales before they either had to fail or be bought out. This is just a theory but I believe it may hold some truth.

Sent From Snap On Head Quarters deep in China.

CRTDI · Aug 6, 2013

The socket is just as strange as the ratchet. They just seem out of place to be early '50s Blackhawk production. From what we know through catalog print, this particular design shouldn't exist in 1953.

I agree that this must have been a very short production run for whatever reason. It sure would be nice to know for sure if this date code is really 1953 or 1963. Is the socket 6 or 12 point?

Do you happen to have have a same size Lock-On socket for a comparison pic?

rusty65 · Aug 6, 2013

The socket is 13/16 12pt and the closet deep socket I have is a 15/16 and is 12pt as well and has a 1944 date code. The 13/16 socket does not have the patents on it like the 15/16 does. And I'm not sure if this helps but most of the freewheelers I have I found with yellow paint and I live 20 minutes away from two caterpillar factorys.

Sent From Snap On Head Quarters deep in China.

CRTDI · Aug 6, 2013

rusty65 said:
The socket is 13/16 12pt and the closet deep socket I have is a 15/16 and is 12pt as well and has a 1944 date code. The 13/16 socket does not have the patents on it like the 15/16 does. And I'm not sure if this helps but most of the freewheelers I have I found with yellow paint and I live 20 minutes away from two caterpillar factorys.

Thanks for the pics! It's interesting to see the differences and similarities in these. I still can't explain how or when this style evolved. :headscrat

There has to be some evidence in a Blackhawk/New Britain catalog somewhere.

I'm thinking that you're probably in a high concentration area for finding some more vintage Blackhawk goodness due to the fact that Blackhawk manufactured some specialty tool kits for Caterpillar back in the day.

Members stormking and Flatintoone have posted pics of their Caterpillar Serviceman's tool boxes in some older threads.

If I was in your area, I would be scouring all the pawnshops and garage sales I could find.....lucky dog!

rusty65 · Aug 6, 2013

Still haven't found any serviceman boxes but I'm sure looking for one. My Dad recently got a tool box from a Cat worker but it was a rem line and had a blackhawk torque wrench in it so I'm going to have to "persuade" him to trade me it

. I find all kinds of tools from caterpillar I recently got a odd Williams DOE and it had CTC laser etched into it. I also have two machinist boxes from retired caterpillar workers I just haven't found my holy grail of a serviceman box. And thank you for all the help you have provided and of course happy hunting to you!

Sent From Snap On Head Quarters deep in China.

twertsy · Nov 9, 2015

I'll update this old thread with what I found this morning. October, 1955 is the transition of Blackhawk to New Britain. This is an excerpt from the New Britain 1955 Financial Report.

Pear head Blackhawk ratchet? 49996-3

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