SK Tools: The Legendary Chicago Tool Brand That Refused to Disappear

#SKTools #HandTools #Chicago SK Tools: The Legendary Chicago Tool Brand That Refused to Disappear What Happened to SK Tools? The American Wrench Brand Mechanics Still Argue About One used SK socket, made in Chicago in the 1970s, just sold for $28. A brand-new set of six costs $19. The man paying the $28 is not a collector. He is buying something nobody manufactures anymore, at any price. What no one else is telling you: SK made a professional-grade tool and sold it at a retail counter. That single contradiction bought the company forty good years and then killed it — better than Craftsman, cheaper than Snap-on, and sold in a place where nobody was shopping for either. In this video: the 1916 Sherman-Klove incorporation, the Hinsdale inventory that accidentally created the brand, the 1933 diamond trademark, Brazil Tools and house-brand sourcing, Theodore Rueb's 1934 fine-tooth ratchet patent and the Roto-Ratchet, tapered socket walls and broaching tolerance, SuperKrome plating, Dresser and Facom ownership, the 2009 Teamsters Local 743 strike over cancelled health insurance, the 2010 bankruptcy and Ideal Industries sale, the PBGC pension trusteeship, and the 2021 sale to GreatStar. Both sides of the SK argument are in here, and neither one is wrong. Subscribe if you want more of this work — and in the comments give us three things: the model number if it's stamped, the decade and place you bought it, and whether it still works. If a socket ever split on you, say which size and what you were doing. sk tools history, sherman-klove chicago, theodore rueb ratchet patent, roto-ratchet, socket broaching tolerance, superkrome plating, sk hand tool bankruptcy, teamsters local 743 strike, ideal industries sk, greatstar acquisition #SKTools #HandTools #Chicago #Sockets #MadeInUSA #ToolHistory #Mechanic #Wrench