Hi Bill,

I saw your post the other day and read your remarks about how great the Klein wire strippers were.

I later went out to see what you were using and lo and behold I have had the same tool since my stint in the navy.

Now I have a story for you.

It has a name like “TRIG-O-MATIC”
SPEEDEX WIRE STRIPPER
SPEEDEX MFG. CO. Rockford, Illinois, USA.
Information casted in has the following.
Patent U.S.A. 2,313,733
Canada 414,214 PATS. PEND
Canada 482,497
PAT. 1952
BRITISH 666,264

I see now that maybe the 1952 could make sense as the ship was in service from 1940 to 1982.
So the tool might have been 20 years old at the time it was tossed into a broken tool or surplus box in our tool room.

So I may have engraved it to keep in my assigned tool box on board.
Kinda looks like my hand writing and I knew it wasn’t on its inventory but looked good.
🙂 I hid it in plain site, just in case something came of it, for at least a couple years. End of enlistment came and I just don’t throw things of value away.

I see where mine has a spring loaded thumb catch to leave the pulling jaw spread back after the strip and only resets closed for the next strip when released. It can be used along very quickly.

Yours has a cut off feature there.
Not sure if thats handy or not?
I assume the wire passes on through that hole to make house wiring of boxes faster.
I have to use a separate cutter but around our cars it’s not so crucial.
Klein makes nice tools but I’m sure it was not their invention unless Speedex was taken over.
I haven’t look for anything on them.

Thanks for sharing.

Phil