Britool, What is in your box?

[244t]

I have collected it for years.

Keep my eye on ebay for useful items, the real Made In England ones.

Never fails to amaze of the specials they made back in the day,

How did this company ever get lost?

Perhaps would be cool, as "show us yours"

 

[Pete.]

I have collected it for years.

How did this company ever get lost?

Marketing failure, ever the scourge of British tool industry. If you're going to sell quality gear use quality marketing, otherwise people will buy cheap crap or import quality gear that's well marketed. I've always said that here in Britain many vendors of all types seem to believe that they are doing you a favour allowing you to buy their goods, whereas if you go to the US and other places they have a well polished delivery and much better focus on service. I doubt we will ever learn.

 

[Swift&Bold]

The very first spanners I bought were Britool (the brand has a sentimental attachment) and make up the core of my tools including a big torque wrench, I still have them now and like you, still hunt down the old ones at various boot fairs and Ebay. I like Beta tools too, nice shape and finish on them which feels right to use, I also have a spattering of Snap-on, Sykes-Pickavant, Geodore, King Dick, Stahwille, Facom, Kamasa and Taskmaster. I've never owned anything Draper. If I'm stuck and need tools on the spot I'll go for the Halfords Advanced/Pro range if only for the guarantee alone, their torque wrenches are very good.

IIRC Britool were the tools issued to the British Army.

 

[johnik]

couple of spanners when i got my first job at 15.....i,m retired now and a torque wrench,i needed a part for it,they told me they didnt do spare parts and to buy a new one,so i bought a teng torque wrench .

 

[The_Yellow_Ardvark]

Not in my regular use, but in my Dads old tool box and tool roll I have his set of spanners, box wrenches. Both imperial.

They don't get as much use as they deserve. But will not part with them.

 

[daleyd]

When I worked at Pilkington we had a workshop 1/2 inch socket set by britool, a lovely thing to use with a click less ratchet mechanism, more like a clutch than a traditional ratchet. I've got a "modern" britool 1/4 inch socket set, which is ok but the quality doesn't seem as good as the old ones, hard to pinpoint exactly why but they're not bad for the price.

 

[ronan]

I was also a fan, bought a set of combination spanners when i started serving my time. There was a break when i didn't buy much tools, but when i did i went back to britool, and what they were selling by then was crap, absolute junk. An expensive hacksaw that broke the first time i used it, a torque wrench that also broke. I went with stahlwille after that.

 

[octo0072000]

bought a big 1/2" drive Britool socket set cost me 6 weeks wages approx 45 years ago
still got most of it now

 

[brightspark]

When I worked at Pilkington we had a workshop 1/2 inch socket set by britool, a lovely thing to use with a click less ratchet mechanism, more like a clutch than a traditional ratchet. I've got a "modern" britool 1/4 inch socket set, which is ok but the quality doesn't seem as good as the old ones, hard to pinpoint exactly why but they're not bad for the price.

the new ones are no where near the old ones. I have full sets of af whitworth and metric old sockets. a couple were missing so bought old ones of eblag costing more than the new type

 

[ronan]

I was told that Britool was bought by some French crowd and the whole brand was cheapened, like i said some of their stuff i bought was very like Draper

 

[brewdexta]

Britool is owned by Facom however Trademarque Tools are sole distributors of the Hallmark range from Britool. I have loads of old Britool, and tried to buy some new old stock and a lot seems to be cheap copies or were made in their death throes before being bought so poor quality. The new Britool spanners from Facom don't seem to have the name on it, now just another brand in a stable and will be pegged to a particular quality and price point. I have some of the Hallmark range and they seem pretty good. If I buy new I look at King Dick first, still UK made and decent quality, I then look at other brands like blue point.

 

[Wedg1e]

I have a smattering of Britool spanners and sockets, couple of torque wrenches... there was certainly a period a few years ago when you could buy Britool spanners that were highly suspect: you'll know them if you see them, forgings (or maybe castings!) as rough as a badger's nadgers yet the superbly crisp Britool logo looks like it was just cut with a CNC engraver (which it probably was).

 

[graffian]

I have a 9/32" square drive socket set.

 

[Pete.]

I have a smattering of Britool spanners and sockets, couple of torque wrenches... there was certainly a period a few years ago when you could buy Britool spanners that were highly suspect: you'll know them if you see them, forgings (or maybe castings!) as rough as a badger's nadgers yet the superbly crisp Britool logo looks like it was just cut with a CNC engraver (which it probably was).

Also true of Facom. I was in a place that had a surplus box of shiny 36mm combination spanners at £4 each all branded Facom. I bought 5 because it's a size we use a heck of a lot at work. First time I put any real strain on one it exploded into 3 pieces

 

[Dieselman 63]

I agree, customer service has gone right downhill. I approached Footprint Tools about their advertised manufacturing services to see if I could get some nicely hardened steel blades made for a pair of Barrows Secateurs (circa 1901). I'd have really appreciated their craftsmanship and the reputation of Sheffield edge tools, but they just never got back to me, which is a shame as I would have paid good money.

 

[GW8IZR]

In the spirit of 'show us' , the last Britool branded thing I bought was this, it sits in a draw 'in case' but its in a nice metal box and the bits are good quality.

 

[xmetal]

I have a set of metric open-ended and a set of metric ring Britool spanners I got from RS Components in the early nineties. They have England stamped on them.

 

[keithski122]

I've got some odds and ends of nineties britool stuff, nothing to rave over though in my mind.

 

[roofman]

ive never been a fan of Britool spanners of all variations and all i can say is they just never felt or looked right enough to be classed as quality...Now there stuff like pullers ect i have no problem buying but its got to be early stuff before Asia made stuff came on line..

 

[ronan]

I have some britool stuff from the 1960's, and it was quality stuff. The later stuff is definetly down on quality.