What does SAE stand for with hand tools?

Answer 1

I can't seem to find an official answer, but SAE stands for the Society of Automotive Engineers. In the early 1900s automobiles were being invented around the world, and their were many automobile companies in the US. There was a want and a need for automobile engineers to share and develop their technology, so in 1916 the Society of Automobile Engineers was formed, later they changed their name to Society of Automotive Engineers that also picked up the other trades. The Society began to develop "standards". It is from there that I believe we came into SAE tools which come from the measurement of factions of an inch. As a boy working on my Schwinn bicycle I remember using "Standard" tools, and one of the kids in the neighborhood had an English Racer that used "Metric".

So I guess to summarize SAE mechanical tools are those that are measured in a fraction of an inch and metric are those mechanical tools measured in millimeters.

SAE stands for: Standard American Equivalent. I had to buy SAE sockets and open end wrenches to work on my 1952 MG TD All MG's before the MGA would use Whitworth tools which is a 3rd standard. Even through the 1980's British cars still used Whitworth on Plumbing fittings like oil cooler lines.