Grace USA screwdrivers - any good? They certainly are :)


TerryMcK

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I've just come across a set of 7 slotted drivers and 5 Phillips drivers made by Grace. They certainly look good and I need some new ones for shop use (my old ones can be beaters or paint stirrers). I see the Schwarz reviewed them in PopWood blog back in 2012 and was very pleased with them. Has anybody else any experience of this brand before I get my credit card out?

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Yes,I have them, and they are fantastic.  The slots perfectly mate with all the screws I've tried them with.  Since getting them I can now drill appropriately sized holes, and drive the brass screws with no problem, and no mangling the slot.  The square handle also seems to fit quite well in my hand, something which I was a little apprehensive about.  I got all the slotted, and then just the two most common Phillips.  I have been very pleased with them.

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  • 8 months later...

I just picked up the Grace 7 set of flat blade woodworking screwdrivers, the Grace 5 set of Philips screwdrivers and a couple of Grace brass hammers in the January sales at my local online woodworking store.

 

First indications are they are superb. They don't roll off the bench, the blades are ground parallel and exactly fit the screws, they are finished very nicely, hopefully will be lifetime tools and I got them all at 45% off.

I've just got to get a job lot of regular slotted screws now  :huh: having used Phillips and Pozidrive screw heads for years.

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I just picked up the Grace 7 set of flat blade woodworking screwdrivers, the Grace 5 set of Philips screwdrivers and a couple of Grace brass hammers in the January sales at my local online woodworking store.

 

First indications are they are superb. They don't roll off the bench, the blades are ground parallel and exactly fit the screws, they are finished very nicely, hopefully will be lifetime tools and I got them all at 45% off.

I've just got to get a job lot of regular slotted screws now  :huh: having used Phillips and Pozidrive screw heads for years.

   Okay Terry, it seems like you have a plan to screw around.... be careful!

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KCoop, depending on the specific screw and your location, don't pitch them. I moved out of my restore two years ago, but all of the work I did to it had to match 160 year old processes. This meant slotted. Try to find a rehab guy in an old neighborhood and he might pay you at least Craigslist rates. Other than copying old work, I would hide almost all non-brass by preference.

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Terry, Do you find yourself using a lot of screws with slot heads, other than brass? I've almost gotten to the point where I want to throw away every slot head screw that I have.

Since I started using battery drills about 25 years ago I seem to have gone over to non-slotted heads for speed and convenience. But I have found a lot of the fixings in this old house (castle) I live in are slotted head - door hinge screws for example - and I wish to retain them when I can. It's nice to have screwdrivers that actually fit the screw heads for a change . All the woodplanes I have are slotted head. I do have one of those fancy (expensive) Lie Nielsen stubby screwdrivers for cap irons that works really well. But these new screwdrivers seem to fit the other woodplane adjusting screws perfectly so no more camming out.

 

I've noticed that even things like brand new doorhandles from home centers still have slotted head screws - at least they do in the UK. Electrical sockets still have fixing screws that are slotted too. I will try to ensure that any new furniture that I make will have will be brass slotted heads from now on. That of course is easier said than done as even the Brusso hinges come with Phillips heads nowadays. So the future for slotted head screws is not as rosy as it was but they're still around.

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