It is "Reed and Prince, not "Reid and Prince"...The Reed and Prince company has been in business in Massachusetts for over 120 years...They started out making nails...The "cross-head" Reed and Prince screw goes back to the 1930's and preceded Phillips...
The Reed and Prince screw driver was designed for production work...Because of the sharp point, one size fits all, making it unnecessary to change tips on the production line...Many screw drivers sold today as Phillips are not really Phillips because they have a sharp point, a characteristic of Reed and Prince...Phillips drivers have a blunt point and it is necessary to change tips to accommodate the size screw...If a Reed and Prince tip is used on a Phillips screw, the pointed tip will bottom out in the shallow recess of the Phillips screw, preventing the side flutes of the tip from fully engaging the cross slots, possibly resulting in stripping out the cross slot...Examination of the recess in the screw will tell if it is a Phillips or a Reed and Prince...The Phillips will have a shallow, almost flat bottom, the Reed and Prince will be deeper and have a pointed bottom...
I prefer Apex drivers because many different tips (straight slot, Phillips, Allen, Torx, etc) are available...They use a 1/4" hex drive on the back of the tips that plug into a socket in the driver handle...They are hard and brittle and will chip if over-torqued, but they will not round over, which causes slipping...
Retrieving (pick-up) tools are available on line from Stanley Supply and Services, formerly Jensen Tools...
Jerry, wa2dkg
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