Older Craft Tools

[horseplay]

I might have the opportunity to purchase a group of leather tools from a local lady. They are all Craft Tools but all are marked Made in the USA. There's just over 50 stamps plus 2 sets of letters and a couple other minor items. They look to be in decent condition overall. I have no idea what a good offer on the whole thing would be. Anyone?

[King's X]

Go over to the blog site on here and check on one of our members Wyoming Slick. He seems to be an expert in the field of Craft Tools though you have quite an opportunity on this set. Good luck

[WyomingSlick]

They are all Craft Tools but all are marked Made in the USA.

If you can wait a bit, I will attempt to give you some pointers on how to evaluate the Craftools this evening. In no case do you want to buy the tools without having some idea of their worthiness for tooling leather.

[horseplay]

Thank you for your help. Wish I had more detail and photos to share. I have seen some photos of the bunch but it's hard to tell what each stamp is. It does look to be a good variety of stamps though. I don't know that I would use everything but I understand that these older ones are better quality and might be worth the risk to purchase and then sell what I don't want.

[WyomingSlick]

Sorry, this reply ended up being posted later than I figured earlier. Job ran late. Such is my life sometimes. LOL

Okay, first a rundown on dating Craftools. The short version:

Craftools put out their first catalog in 1946. According to Bert Grifin, wife of Ken Griffin, Richard (Dick) McGahen made the first Craftools in his home shop.

1946 - 1963 Craftools are usally marked on the shaft with CRAFTOOL CO and a 2 or 3 digit number. Some early ones that are marked with only the CRAFTOOL CO name are around, but very rare.

1963 - 1968 Craftools (tooling) are marked as before with the addition of a letter prefix according to type of stamp. Tandy acquired the company in the early 60's and moved operations from LA to Ft.Worth, TX.

1969 - 2000 ?? Craftool added the "Made in USA" logo to their tools to differentiate them from the foreign made tools put out by MIdas and Kelly. At some point, they also dropped the "CO" so that tools only said: the tool # with prefix letter, Craftool Made in USA

More recently, Craftools are made only overseas. Some of these may be marked only Craftool on the second line, but they will still have the letter prefix before the number. That may be why they sell the tools packaged in labeled bags here....it may be the law to declare country of origin on item.

So......the tools you are looking at were made between 1969 and around 2000+ , a span of more than thirty years. In that time, the quality of the tools went markedly down hill. I won't go into all the factors surrounding that decline here.....the important thing to know is that tools marked with the USA may be pretty decent tools, or they may be much more inferior tools.

The only way to know is to appraise the tools. To help you with that, I am posting a few comparisons between pre 1963 Craftool stamps and post 1969 Craftool Stamps. There are some other pictures posted on my blog regarding Craftools that you can take a look at also

First a comparison of two bevelers. The 200 beveler is one of the most common tools out there because it is of a size suited to accomplish a majority of your beveling. As noted in the pic, one is a pre 1963 beveler while the other is much more recently made in the USA. The older one has the slight curve to the tooling face that is desired for smooth beveling, while the other is blocky, that is nearly flat with only a very slight rounding of the corners. That blocky beveler will produce choppy beveling, more noticably bad in the hands of a novice. You might notice the finish on the two tools .....the older one being much more pleasing in appearance.

Next a comparison of 2 camouflages, as before, one pre 1963 vs one post 1969. Besides the notes on the picture, also notice that the lines are cut deeper, and sharper, on the older cam which makes for crisper definition in your tooling.

.

And, a comparison of two acorn stamps. These type of stamps, those primarily formed by dies, will include many of the flower stamps, leaves, stars, the cutesy animal ones, etc. As the dies are used to stamp out tool after tool, they inevitably will wear out, and start producing more and more inferior stamping tools. It may also be the case, that one die is made better than others just to begin with. Then there is the matter of the finish work done afterwards. Notice the beveling across the top edge done by grinding, with the older one done more evenly and procducing a cleaner edge.

Generally speaking, the older a Craftool is, the better tool it is. There are a few exceptions to that rule. one being that some of the flower petal tools produced later, are better than some of the pre1963 unlettered ones.

I hope that I have been of some help here. What would really be of help to you is if you could have an experianced leather tooler look at the tools with you, or at the very least show you with their tools what you need to be looking for. I am talking about someone who you really respect for their tooling ability. If that is not possible, try to get a feeling for what the older Craftools look like by looking at pictures on Ebay. Some of the sellers post really good close up shots of the tool faces. Ignore the term "vintage" in the auction titles. It seems to be a catch all phrase for anything older than last year. Look for tools that are unlettered, or at least don't have "Made in USA " on them. If you need to get a feel for the price they are bringing, do an advanced search from the box at top of the eBay page and check the completed or sold option.

I know you were looking for a ballpark figure here, and really all I can say it that I definately wouldn't offer over $150 for the whole works, unless there is something special in the additional tools you mentioned. If you can find out from the seller when the tools wee originally bought, that may be a consideration. The 1970's would be some better than the 1990's.

Edited May 3, 2014 by WyomingSlick

[horseplay]

Wow, thanks so much for such great advise! I really appreciate that you took so much time to answer me in this way.

[Studio-N]

thank you. that was very informative.