This will document my World War II US Army Signal Corps Impression. Now, per Chad Phillips, who is an expert in World War II Signal Corps impressions, research, and documentation in the WW2 Signal Corps Facebook group, indicated that for a basic Lineman and Groundsman Impression, you should have the following –
Lineman:
LC-1 Axe: LC stands for Line Construction, and would say LC-1 on it, and might say “True Temper Kelly Works” or “True Temper Flint Edge”.
Kelly Axe Manufacturing Company produced axes but was bought by American Fork and Hoe in 1930. They then began the True Temper brand of axes. AFH likely kept the name “Kelly Works” on some of the “True Temper” brand of axes. For a look at the 1938 American Fork and Co. catalog, see: True Temper Tools General Catalog 1R.
The LC-1 Axe Handle may be around 18 inches in total length. 2 inches inside the axe head, and 16 inches showing. The handle may have been painted green and installed with a few splits inside the head. The green paint might be a field modification as “load out” images that show all the tools on display; the ax is left unpainted, suggesting the paint came in the field. Indeed, the original ones look glossly black and dark blue.
A close-up of the LC-1 Ax head in this image shows that the handle is painted green. If you wanted to paint it green Krylon 4293 (which seems to be found only at Lowe’s) would be a good color to use. Midwest Military sells a Signal Corps green color, but it’s unclear if it’s the right color green.
The handle likely came in different styles, such as straight. Though images that show items on display show that the handle is slightly curved.
LC-23A and LC-23B belt w/strap [late ’44 date]: Came in two styles. A canvas and a leather version. Also came in multiple sizes. LC-23a is likely the leather. LC-23b is likely the canvas. This matches the EEa and EEb phone designs as well.
LC-5 Climbers: The spikes are called gaffs. Included with the climbers are a leather strap and a coarse cloth square pad.
They came in multiple sizes, see the notes section of the image below, which describes the sizes for LC-23 belt and the LC-5 climbers.
LC-24 Twisting Plier, also called a Clamp: Used to crimp, twist, and splice wire.
TL 107 Pliers, 8″: 8in in length, straight nose, steel.
TL-106 Screwdriver: The screwdriver is similar to the Stanley 1939 #25 driver. It had a 10-inch blade with a 3/8ths tip. 17in overall length.
LC-25-A Lineman Wrench: The LC-25-A Wrench was used to secure cross beams to telephone poles. It differs from the LC-25 wrench.
LC-29 Gloves, Rubber: This was not part of TE-21 but something they likely kept on hand. Black in color. Likely worn under the leather gloves for working with exposed lines, as rubber is an electrical insulator. It came in three different sizes I believe.
LC-29 Gloves, Leather:
TL-144 Gaff Gauge: Used to measure the spikes on the climbers. This was not part of TE-21 but something they likely kept on hand. May have come in a few different designs as shown below.
Lineman’s equipment TE-21: When laid out looked like this. I suspect some of this stuff was traded off between the guy on the pole and the guy on the ground. Also, the image might be a post-war one, as the Hammer, HM-1 isn’t listed. Instead, a TL-39 Hammer is listed.
Groundman’s Equipment:
LC-23 belt w/o strap [late ’44 date]:
LC-10 Gloves, Leather:
HM-1 Hammer, 2lb: This is a double-faced engineer’s hammer. It has a 16-inch handle and weighs 2 pounds.
Groundman’s Equipment TE-23: When laid out, it looked like the following:
Other items:
2 DR-4 reels [no -A suffix]:
2 DR-8 handheld reel rigs [no -A suffix]:
1 Bag, BG-44:
2 LC-57 Buckets, Canvas: A white canvas bucket for, likely, hauling tools around and up poles.
LC-25-A Lineman Wrench Wrapper
The LC-A wrench looked different when compared to the A version.
The LC-25-A Wrench was used to secure cross beams to telephone poles. I purchased mine off of eBay for 30 dollars in March 2025, shipped. It came in new, unopened condition. It was wrapped in two brown paperish wrappers with a paper tag attached to it.
The first tag was an inspection wrapper dated 3/1960. The second tag was the initial packing tag. It was dated 11/1951.
Now, to my knowledge, the wrench didn’t change between WW2 and the Korean War. I don’t have the wrappers, but the 11/1951 wrapper is 6in long and 2in wide. The 3/1960 is 7in long and 2in wide. You can download a pdf here if you want to try and recreate it.
