Semantics and other addenda on Snap-on ratcheting wrenches

["John Hertzman" <johnhertzman@domain.elided>]

John Katos has added substantially, and quite usefully, to my somewhat
flip note on Sears and Snap-on ratcheting wrenches; a couple of other
people have mentioned, off-digest, the Snap-on on-line store as a source
for tools, prices, and information.

My information on Snap-on is limited to their website on-line store,
their current hardcopy catalog which I bought from the store (without the
separate price list, which is not offered) and a 1991 catalog and
comprehensive price list which I already had. I would recommend that
anyone planning on investing in this class of tools should study the
Sears tool catalog, the hardcopy Snap-on catalog, and the Snap-on on-line
store, as well as other tool stores and catalogs. Many but not all
professionals like Mac tools (www.mactools.com) as well as or better than
Snap-on, Griot's Garage (www,griotsgarage.com) lists the European brand
Facom tools, and there are undoubtedly other worthy ones.

Brand names and quality reputations can be ambiguous. Snap-on makes and
sells a second, lower-priced line called Blue Point, and Lowes (a chain
similar to Home Depot) carries a proprietary line called Kobalt which is
manufactured for them by Snap-on; I am fairly sure that some, but by no
means all, of Sears Craftsman tools are also made by Snap-on, and there
are probably other proprietary brands made by them for various chains.
Snap-on, Blue Point, Kobalt, and Craftsman tools all carry the same
warranty, but fit, finish, patentable technical details, and extent of
variety can differ, as does price.

In the ratcheting wrenches (which is where this started) there is a
semantic trap in the word ratcheting. For box (or ring) wrenches it means
that the six-point or twelve-point ring which surrounds the head of the
nut or bolt rotates against a pawl or detent in one direction; for an
open-end wrench it means that one of the two faces which engage the flats
of the hex is abbreviated and contoured so that the tool can be advanced
to engage the next flat without completely removing the wrench from both
flats. Ergo a combination wrench (box at one end, open-end at the other)
which has one or the other end ratcheting in one of these two senses can
be a ratcheting combination wrench, a ratcheting box/open end wrench, a
ratcheting open end/box wrench, a box/ratcheting open end, or an open
end/ratcheting box wrench and probably other mixes of the terms, slashes,
and hyphens without all describing the same thing. This quibble is
significant in differentiating the Snap-on on-line and hardcopy catalogs;
the hardcopy Snap-on catalog has box/ratcheting open end wrenches but
does not have combination wrenches with the box end ratcheting. The
Snap-on on-line catalog is the reverse; it has combination wrenches with
the box end ratcheting, but not the other way around. Part of the
explanation is that the ones on the Snap-on on-line catalog are not the
Snap-on brand, but are the Blue Point brand; the description does not
mention it but the wording on the tiny picture of the wrench does. This
also would seem to explain the price variations in the on-line catalog;
the standard double-ended ratcheting box wrenches run from $30.95 for the
7mm-8mm to $52.50 for the 17mm-19mm; the combination open-end/ratcheting
box wrenches run from $8.45 for the 8mm to $12.85 for the 19mm.
Undoubtedly both the $12.85 and the $52.50 wrenches are good tools, but
it may pay to read and compare the data in both the on-line and off-line
lists and apply curiosity and perhaps logic judiciously before making a
presumably long-term investment in the tools.

I also must mention that the on-line Snap-on catalog is far less
comprehensive than the hardcopy catalog; on one subset of ratcheting
wrenches it lists and prices sixteen of the twenty-one in the main
catalog, bot on other subsets it will list and price one out of eight, or
one or two out of five; again if you want the fullest choice among
possibly useful variables you will need to do your homework with more
than the website as an information resource.

Enjoy,

John H.

   
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