I found this tool at the last Stafford auto-jumble, it has number 4140899 stamped on it which could very well be the tank number for BSA WM20 14466 if I am right about thinking that it could be a C number.

I have always had the feeling that most BSA tools I collected over the years could very well be post-war issue, at least quite a few of them.

Do any of you have any tools with such a number stamped on it?

Henk

email (option): ahum@quicknet.nl

Hi Henk. Ive found the number C2418 stamped on a 4" King Dick style adjustable spanner. Ive always wondered if it was a motorcycle contract number.

email (option): Fuzzyempire@hotmail.com

Hi Henk

Very nice find, first one I have seen, but of course it could still be post war

Rob

email (option): robmiller11(a)yahoo.co.uk

Henk, I'm sure that it has to be a WD serial number. Quite a sensible thing to do and probably done by a workshop fitter with time and facilities.

The Shelley jack that came with my Series 3 Ex-MoD Land Rover had a number of (post-war, of course) registration numbers stamped on to it so it has certainly been standard practice at times.

Like you, I suspect that many of the tools (and indeed parts) that we find are actually post-war production. How much they differed from original is difficult to say, but I can more or less date the King Dick type adjustables by reference to the design registration.

Hamish, it would be a big job (for me at least) to go all through the contracts looking for C2418...To be honest though, I couldn't really see the value in stamping a contract number on a tool...although tools also had numbered contracts.

probably to keep other sqauddies from borrowing tools out your tool box and then claiming its theirs?
From the tales I have heard, "borrowing" kit from wherever to make up your own shortfalls at inspection time was standard in the army, anything from a valve cap to a jeep was laible to get "borrowed"

so stamping the tank number on makes sense to me, so much sense indeed that I am now off to the shed to dig out my number stamps........

email (option): deadsheds [ at ] yahoo.com

I was very pleased to find it and I had never seen one before. I guess Rob could be right that it still can be post war but it's not really likely to my opinion.

Now I only have to find all other tools with a tank number on it, preferably my own tank number.

Henk

email (option): ahum@quicknet.nl

i would love to put a 'like' on this picture but this forum is not facebook!!!
lovely find Henk, well done. i've got s fire extingisher, a 1943 dated Pyrene that has the WD number stamped on it. it came off a Bedford apparently.

Nice find Henk, and good luck with the rest of it!!!

Have a picture of a battery marked with the C number, and some pannier bags with C numbers on, all to prevent pilfering!!

Cheers,

Lex

email (option): welbike@wel***.net

That tool was my best Stafford find and to be honest also just about the only thing I found there

email (option): ahum@quicknet.nl

even better to find some spanners with 'authentic' bullet marks.....

firts I'll use the number stamps, then hit it with a chisel......top price on ebay...simples.

Did anybody else waste an hour watching that programme "Combat dealers"?
god what a load of rubbish

email (option): deadsheds [ at ] yahoo.com

ken I didn't think it was to bad interesting about the swim wagon it was the prices and the characters were a bit OTT

email (option): roger.beck@node6.com

A Harley at £11K and regarded as cheap? OTT ? nah

As for turning up at a farmers gate in Normandy, saying "me looko Swimmwagon you gotti?

I don't think I'd get that welcome he did.

the story behind the recovery and storage of it would have been much more interesting.

Don't think I'd buy a newspaper off any of the rest of that lot.

email (option): deadsheds [ at ] yahoo.com