Gordon_M wrote: ↑Mon Apr 15, 2019 5:12 am
... it is good to see finishes other than OD now and then.
Honestly, I'm not a big fan of red, and the Plomb 1941 "brilliant Chinese red" is a little
too brilliant for me. And I think this one has been spraybombed by a PO. There is dried paint splotches underneath. I may sandblast it and do my special Plomb "barn find" OD green treatment to it.
Gordon_M wrote:I never saw the point in having a ratchet that was female drive AND reversible. I can't think of a job where you would need both and flipping the ratchet and pushing the drive plug through wouldn't be almost as quick.
Flipping the ratchet over and pushing the drive plug through would be almost as quick, and I can't even think of another female reversible ratchet off the top of my head. But you're making the mistake of thinking that all Plomb collectors are practical utilitarians. The 4748 isn't highly desirable for its utility. This little critter is highly desirable because it's so rare and Plomb collectors want to say they have one!
As for why a reversible female, it may have been provisioned like this to explicitly accept both a 4752 (1/4-inch) drive plug AND that second 4753 (9/32-inch) drive plug. I don't know how you'd make a ratchet that would take a 1/4-inch push-through and a 9/32-inch push-through.
Gordon-M wrote:I try not to buy female drive ratchets unless they have the plug, or unless I already have a plug with no ratchet.
I have a pile pf push-through square and hex plugs in all sorts of drive sizes that I pick up at flea markets whenever I see them in old toolboxes precisely for the reason that I sometimes find ratchets without them. I can think of a few ratchets I wouldn't buy if it was missing the plug, but a Plomb 4748 is not one of them! I would've been mocked, tarred and feathered, and run out of Plombtown as a complete idiot by other collectors if I had left that ratchet behind for missing its plugs!