The reason the Mac tools are more square was due to several customers requesting a flatter surface (versus the rounded edges of the Craftsman). When you really put a bunch of force on the end of the wrench, the flatter edge "feels better", according to the Stanley marketing folks. I worked closely with the main design engineer at Stanley Black & Decker and he had all of these quirky stories on why the tools were designed the way they were. There was an ongoing debate about the offset angle, too, on those double-box-end wrenches. I hated all of the forging slag that would get caught in the deep corner, which was a real pain to polish out.
The date code of E1 and E2 on those wrenches means that they were probably made in the mid-2000's (2004, 2005 2006?), which was before my time as the manager for the wrench department at SBD. While I was managing the department, we switched up some of the processes to give a brighter, smoother finish to the wrenches, sockets, and ratchets, in an effort to better match the finish coming from the Chinese-sourced Craftsman and USA-made Snap-On.
