Refirbished Ford Toolkit Screwdriver

Dan

1) From the picture, it looks as though that is the same screwdriver that came with Johnson and Evinrude outboard motors of the period. Makes me wonder who made them back then. What we now would call OEM.

2) I also check another Forum every day - the Model T Ford Club. This thread makes me feel right at home, because putting together "original" kits of tools is a pastime of many Model T owners (not me - mine is a "driver"). Most if not all of the tools shown above are the same I see on the Model T forum. There's also a lot of back-and-forth about the size and specifications of the roll-up pouch they came in, and how to get a local shop to make an exact duplicate.

3) There are two rust-removal techniques that have been extensively covered on the Model T forum. One involves suspending your part inside a plastic bucket filled with water and washing soda, into which are also stuck one or more pieces of iron or steel (most folks use re-bar), and applying voltage from a battery charger. I won't try to give you the polarity and the size charger needed, because I have forgotten, but if anyone wants them, I'll get them for you. It leaves the part rust-free and with a black finish.

The other is the more fascinating one to me. It involves tossing the part (your screwdriver, say) into a bucket, tank, or pot into which a mixture of one pound of molasses to one gallon of water have been added. You simply let it sit for about 3 weeks and the part comes out like new. You need to leave it outdoors, apparently, because the molasses ferments and stinks, but plenty of folks have tried it on everything from bolts & nuts to whole fenders, and it works!

I have never heard of the molasses trick - that is interesting. However; I did use straight white venegar once to clean the coulter check chain on my 1941 Ferguson plow. It is much slower, like your molasses trick, and took about four days or so. Here is the before and after pics:

Thanks for the reply,
Dan

Dawn

Tim

Take care,
Chad

Here is what the entire set looks like. I use my spark plug wrench the most out of all the tools (I carry complete original tool sets on all my tractors). The spark plug wrench is the perfect size and shape to get under the gas tank to remove a spark plug.

I have spare pliers, the two small open end wrenches, plow wrench, spark plug wrench, and screwdriver. The spare monkey wrench I was given by my BIL looks like the one in this pic, but has a square plug on the end of the handle and was made for a Model A car. I may grind it down so I can mount my spare tools on a board like this pic for display purposes.

HTH,
Dan

These original screwdrivers are between 8 1/2" and 8 5/8" long, and the shaft goes all the way through the handle and can be seen from the butt end of the screwdriver when looking at the end.

HTH,
Dan

One has a B stamped on the blade, but does not have the rivet. The other has the rivet but no stamp on the blade. I believe both are genuine Ford tractor screwdrivers.

Just a little more information. For anyone who wants more information about these tools, follow this link.

• Harry Kidd's Webpage