Above, from a 19-inch extension for 1/2-inch drive sockets. An opportunity to use such a long extension has not yet presented itself. Still, you never know when you might require such a thing, which is presumably why I bought it at some long-forgotten yard sale.
Penncraft was the brand name for tools offered by J.C. Penney, their competition for the Sears Craftsman and Montgomery-Ward Powr-Kraft lines. Apparently, the hand tools were actually made by a variety of firms, including the New Britain Tool Company, SK, Mac and possibly even Snap-On, while Penncraft planes were made originally by Sargent and later by Stanley. Penncraft tools were only offered for a few decades, ending in the mid-1980's. As J.C. Penney stores never operated in Canada, my tool must have been smuggled up here from the U.S. by some previous owner, possibly hidden uncomfortably in a body cavity.
Speaking of body cavities, in 1940, Sam Walton began working at a J. C. Penney in Des Moines, Iowa. In 1962, he founded Walmart.
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| Source: Garage Journal |
4 comments:
Thank you for posting this article. I have that same Penncraft ratcheting torque wrench from that add. I love it.
As two of my grandmothers worked for pennys, we found a lot of Penncraft tools in both of my grandfathers', my father's and my oldest brother's estates. The tools mostley apeared to have been manufactured by the above mentioned brands with some of the same basic tools still being manufactured today(or until recently) by Stanley.
I have like tools in Husky, American Forge, Stanley, Blackhawk, Challenger and Proto. The old Penncraft secrewdrivers appear to be identical to the Stanley 100 plus tools of that Era. I also have some S-K tools with the JCPenney trademark. To date, I have not found any of the mythical Penncraft tools of Snap-On make amoungst the tens of thousands of vintage tools I have warehoused. The minute I disregaurd the idea completely, however, I will find a box full of them and look more dumber.
The above mentioned Craftsman and PourKraft tools were interesting because a lot of their hand tools were manufactured according to Sears and Wards tradmark designs where Penneys seems not to have done that. They just sold some pretty darn good Quality Tools under the Peneys or Penncraft logos.
Cool information, and thanks for sharing it. B.
Served in here trying to find how about Penn crafters as I found a 6 inch or 3/8 drive extension laying in the road today it was a pen craft. Still in really nice condition I’ll be heading it to my collection. I also own a JCPenney Branded half inch breaker bar that I bought in the early 1980s and I’m still using today pretty regularly near the end of my career as an auto body technician
I have a jack plane bought at Penny's. The plane is made by Penncraft
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