Gary Maze wrote:

	I have been curious the last few weeks, does anyone know of any type of
	list of equipment Bell linemen were issued? Obviously the Yankee brace,
	but I have also seen a Yankee 130 push drill and a 6 foot zigzag rule
	(don't remember who made that one, ironically given the Galootaclaus
	postings, I gave it to my good little galoot 2 years ago) all marked  
"Bell
	System". I would guess some auger bits,wrenches and screwdrivers were
	included, but not sure what else would have been in the kit, and if all
	the pieces were marked.

Amidst the collection of hand tools inherited from my dad (by the  
time I went to work for Ma Bell they weren't so generous with the  
tooling) are several types of Stanley bit braces (among these the  
2101A model which is one of my favorites, actually) and about which  
the only unfortunate thing I can say about it is that your last  
opportunity to get one relatively inexpensively just passed through  
the Old Tools list the other day at the start of the "Yankee Braces"  
thread. These things command ludicrous prices on that big auction  
site.  I saw a web site somewhere on the Net that described in great  
detail how to disassemble, clean and rebuild one. I don't have the  
link just now but will google for it a little later.

As to the other tools, the folding rulers were boxwood, some are  
marked Lufkin and others Stanley, and there were cloth ones on a reel  
by Lufkin as well,

numerous needle nose and diagonal pliers by Klein,

there's an assortment of files, the ones that seem to have survived  
their ordeal were Simonds, the others have no discernible markings at  
this point,

Stanley (again) - tack hammers, lineman's hammers (the pole-stepping  
variety had a hole drilled in the head - it was used to screw/twist  
phone pole rungs), a lovely all stainless hacksaw (but it's  
unpleasant to hold it in cold weather), the 41Y push drill,  
screwdrivers.  The 41Y push drill btw is also my favorite type of  
hand drill because you use it one-handed and it absolutely does not  
wobble like those push-type screwdrivers seem to do.

I have no idea about the corporate histories of these tool makers  
(other than that they're mostly either dead or off-shored) but it's  
my understanding that Ma Bell bought heavily from all of them when  
they were alive and kicking here in the States. Doubtless there are  
many more than have been passed on to me.

Nevertheless, having used the tools both at home and on the job I can  
say without hesitation that Ma Bell bought some of the best quality  
tools of the day. Granted tools were manufactured to much better  
standards back then as well, so even the "cheap" tools were superior  
to much of what can be bought new today. But that's why we're all  
here on the Old Tools List, I suppose.

JL
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