Brand of McMaster-Carr's HSS square tool blanks: A.R. Warner Co.

[Karl A]

I have purchased a few square-shank HSS tool blanks from McMaster-Carr, to use in tangential tool holders. For good fit in the holders, it's important to me that the blanks be square in cross section, and close to the nominal size. Being that they are from McMaster-Carr, I think it's likely that the high-speed steel is good quality.
McMaster-Carr does not state the brand of the tool blanks. They only state that the country of origin is the United States.
Details provided by McMaster-Carr are clues to the origin.
The alloy types are "PM T-15", "M-2", "M-42", and PM M-48". Note the hyphen in each name.
Both ends of a blank are beveled 10°.
The blanks have a label. Here is a photo of two blanks:

I also purchased a T-15 blank from LittleMachineShop.com. It has the same label as the T-15 blank from McMaster-Carr. Little Machine Shop identifies the source of their T-15 blanks: A.R. Warner Co.
The following description is at https://www.arwarnerco.com/category-s/152.htm

The information from McMaster-Carr, LittleMachineShop.com, and A.R. Warner Co. matches. Therefore, A.R. Warner is the source of the square tool blanks that McMaster-Carr sells.

 

[homebrewed]

If McMaster-Carr doesn't specify the source, the next batch you get could very well come from some other vendor It's likely their "failure" to provide the source is no accident.

Back when I was doing electronics for a living we would regularly get parts returned by customers because they didn't meet their specifications. "There's something wrong with the new parts we bought from your company." In most cases their specifications were based on measurements done on a limited sample size, possibly all from the same manufacturing lot. Their mistake? They should have looked much more carefully at the product data sheet. THAT is the only thing manufacturers guarantee.

 

[GeneT45]

I'm not entirely convinced that the parts are A.R. Warner, though it wouldn't surprise me if they are. I just don't see a smoking gun - only collaborative evidence. As @homebrewed said, the next batch could be from a different vendor - but McMaster is pretty good about making sure their stuff is "completely" equivalent regardless of vendor.


- An aside, not to derail the topic at hand:
As for electronics - many (most?) engineers don't know how to correctly interpret a data sheet. I didn't either until I had a hand in producing them. If the spec doesn't state a min and max, none are guaranteed - even weakly. If it does, there's still the ubiquitous "Guaranteed By Design" - which means the parameter is not tested, but should theoretically be within stated limits (not always the case...). Look hard for footnotes, asterisks, etc. The spec sheet is made to make the part look good. Typicals mean very little. Unequivocal min and max specs are as close to a guarantee as you can get, and usually mean that the part has been tested to fall within the prescribed range. Still, after a certain number of parts have demonstrated that everything's OK (with anomalies explained away) sometimes those tests are turned off as well. Solid designs aren't overly dependent on part specs - or are designed to work with a lot of allowance of the stated parameters. If a spec is absolutely critical, and not well within stated specs, it's probably worth noting in the contract.

GsT

 

[Karl A]

I'm not entirely convinced that the parts are A.R. Warner, though it wouldn't surprise me if they are. I just don't see a smoking gun - only collaborative evidence. As @homebrewed said, the next batch could be from a different vendor - but McMaster is pretty good about making sure their stuff is "completely" equivalent regardless of vendor.
...

When I started writing my post, I intended to ask the question what brand the tool blanks are. I took the photo to ask whether anyone recognized the label. My post turned into the claim that A.R. Warner is the source. The claim is not backed by strong evidence, but based on the evidence, I can't think of a stronger claim (other than the trivial solution that we can't know with absolute certainty who the supplier is).
I performed an Google image search of the photo. For images that matched the label style, Google only found images from McMaster-Carr and LittleMachineShop.com
I found a match of the label style on ebay.com, of a T-15 3/4-inch square tool blank that is for sale.

The seller lists it "unbranded". Price is $52.99, which is less than the $98.94 price of McMaster-Carr.

 

[Splat]

Call McMaster and ask them the maker or supplier. They will usually tell you these days.

 

[Karl A]

Call McMaster and ask them the maker or supplier. They will usually tell you these days.

I sent an email message to McMaster-Carr:
"Hi, Can you tell me the name of the supplier/brand of your square-shank grind-your-own lathe tool blanks? An example is 3205A61. The ones that I have ordered recently appear to be from A.R.. Warner Co."
I received this reply:
"Yes, our supplier for this tool blank (3205A61) is Arthur Warner Company.
Let me know any other part numbers you are curious about and I will confirm suppliers for those items as well."

 

[bill stupak]

High-speed steel - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

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