My small but growing DBE wrench collection

[McFarmer]

If you don't blanche at the practice of repurposing old tools (or lots of other mancave stuff), this Pinterest search will take you down a cool rabbit hole:

https://www.pinterest.com/kypper/door-handles/?lp=true

There are a lot of folks with a ton more creativity than I have.

Good thing too.

When I taught school we had an art teacher that was always coming up with things for his students to work on where they needed my help.

He had the creativity and no idea whatsoever how to make it a reality. We made a pretty good team for a lot of years.

Here's one sample I had close at hand :

Sorry, hope I didn't derail the thread.

Don't look too close at the metal work, it was a 13 year old young lady that did it. And she did nearly all of it herself. With guidance of course.

 

[snapmom]

A Snap on Whitworth short DBE set. This set is usually a British Standard BS marked set. All have a 58 code, which maybe the only year they were made in Whitworth with the Snap on name.. Previous 58 (or close) , they would have been Blue Point.

 

[BlueBomber]

Whew, that's a rare set! Hen's teeth are more common. Thanks for sharing, Snapmom.

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[paulm12]

got this a few weeks ago in a batch of hand tools. Tiger Tools.

 

[BlueBomber]

Hey, paulm12, that Tiger wrench is G-r-r-r-eat! (Sorry, I couldn't resist

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[paulm12]

Hey Blue, thanks, that just made my day. You want it for your collection?

 

[BlueBomber]

Hey Blue, thanks, that just made my day. You want it for your collection?

paulm12: let me check, but I'm probably missing that one. I'll send you a PM.

I had a big delivery of DBEs come in this past week from an eBay purchase. They may look familiar to long time followers of this thread because by sheer randomness, I bought them from r_olson, who goes by the moniker "skking_06" over there. He recognized my reference to a pair of Bluepoints I had posted not long ago and asked "By any chance are you on Garage Journal?" Small world. [emoji481]

At any rate, I perused his eBay listings and we agreed to a price on 18 of his wrenches that will fill holes in my collection.

Blue-Point XD-3034 angled, 15/16" x 1-1/16"--date code looks like it could be 1927, but hard to tell
Vlchek WBH2024 offset, 3/4" x 5/8"
Fleet 6324 offset, 3/4" x 11/16"
Williams Superrench No 4727A angled, 11/16" x 5/8"



Powr-Kraft angled, 11/16" x 3/4"
Powr-Kraft angled, 3/8" x 7/16"
Duro-Chrome 2013A angled offset, 5/8" x 11/16"
Duro-Chrome 2061 stubby angled, 3/8" x 7/16"



Bonney Bonaloy 2805L deep offset, 1/2" x 9/16"
Riverside deep offset, 7/16" x 3/8"
Indestro Chicago No. 730 oval shank, deep offset, 3/8" x 7/16"
Westcraft HR2256 6-point deep offset, 3/8" x 7/16"
Handy-Hex 02043 deep offset stubby, 11/16" x 5/8"
Mac B 5 angled stubby, 9/16" x 1/2"



Lectrolite MB1214 offset stubby, 3/8" x 7/16"
Indestro Chicago angled stubby, 7/16" x 3/8"
Vlchek WB1012 offset stubby, 3/8" x 5/16"
Prestolite 4-point stubby, sizes unmarked



I found a couple of references online to the Prestolite wrench as being for the acetylene headlamps on early Indian/Harley motorcycles. If so, that would be super cool!

Thanks for sharing, r_olson!

 

[Private Lugnutz]

If so, that would be super cool!

If it's the wrench in my thumbnail, BB, and it's marked like this ("Prest-O-Lite"), I was under the impression it goes with a Prest-O-Lite oxy-acetylene torch kit. I could be wrong. And there's not may cases I wish I was, but this would be one of them! Do you have your research links? I'd love to work this one out with you.

 

[BlueBomber]

If it's the wrench in my thumbnail, BB, and it's marked like this ("Prest-O-Lite"), I was under the impression it goes with a Prest-O-Lite oxy-acetylene torch kit. I could be wrong. And there's not may cases I wish I was, but this would be one of them! Do you have your research links? I'd love to work this one out with you.

Lugz: You're most likely right. I was keying off of Ebay ads for "Prest-o-lite" wrenches. There were, in fact, Prest-o-lite acetylene lights on old Harleys and Indians, but after watching a few YouTube videos of them being lit, they don't appear to require wrenches.

So: torch kit wrench it is!

 

[four.cycle]

^ that Indestro 730 is really quite unusual. I have never seen one stamped with that font.

 

[BlueBomber]

^ that Indestro 730 is really quite unusual. I have never seen one stamped with that font.

I thought it was a smaller Indestro Polygon when I first saw it. I don't have another like it.

 

[BlueBomber]

Found a batch of DBEs at a nearby estate sale today.

Billings 8727A deep offset, 11/16" x 5/8"
Billings 7725B angled, 9/16" x 1/2"
Williams Superrench 8725 deep offset, 1/2" x 7/16"
Billings 9027 deep offset stubby, 11/16" x 19/32"
2x Williams Superrench 9723 offset stubbies, 7/16" x 3/8"
Indestro Chicago angled stubby, 9/16" x 1/2"
Indestro Chicago angled stubby, 5/16" x 1/4"


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[LesserSon]

All the Lectrolite Corp Defiance O DBEs I’ve seen have their panels oriented the same way except this one (the rusty one), which has them on the opposite sides. Have you noted that variation much?

 

[BlueBomber]

All the Lectrolite Corp Defiance O DBEs I’ve seen have their panels oriented the same way except this one (the rusty one), which has them on the opposite sides. Have you noted that variation much?

I have noted varitions of orientation, font and text matter on a number of manufacturers wrench lines, although I can't say I've made a study of any of the trends.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

I found a Blackhawk 15627 (15/16 x 1) double offset DBE wrench today. It appears to be cadmium plated and I'm pretty sure that "-4" indicates 1944. (Excuse the Vlchek ignition wrenches. Saving some time and space...)

 

[DadsTools]

All the Lectrolite Corp Defiance O DBEs I’ve seen have their panels oriented the same way except this one (the rusty one), which has them on the opposite sides. Have you noted that variation much?

Nice specimens from the 1930s. Folks here know I'm kind of partial toward Lectrolite. But I don't know whether I've seen enough of those from that era to know how common this variation might be. If you look at the AA site, you'll see a lot of variety in these Lectrolites coming from the 1930s.

BTW, the rare ones from this era are the 4000 series DBE.

 

[DadsTools]

I found a Blackhawk 15627 (15/16 x 1) double offset DBE wrench today. It appears to be cadmium plated and I'm pretty sure that "-4" indicates 1944. (Excuse the Vlchek ignition wrenches. Saving some time and space...)

No reason to excuse Vlchek-anything, Lugz! It's all good.

 

[misterbill]

Following in Lugz' footsteps... found a Blackhawk 15625 3/4" x 25/32" DBE today. I don't know if the "5" is 1935 or 1945, though. Leaning towards 1945 since it's not chromed.

Bill

 

[Private Lugnutz]

Following in Lugz' footsteps... found a Blackhawk 15625 3/4" x 25/32" DBE today. I don't know if the "5" is 1935 or 1945, though. Leaning towards 1945 since it's not chromed.

Better than merely not chromed, that finish sure looks cad to me, Bill, or powdery, like some kind of phosphate residue. But you can stand up straight and firm on 1945 regardless. Blackhawk wasn't date coding in the 30's, and, even more definitive, the model numbers on their box wrenches were different in the 1930's (26xx - long DO DBE, 27XX - short DO DBE, and 29XX - single offsets). The 156XX series is wartime. 1561X - short DO DBE, 1562X - long DO DBE, and 1563X - long 15* angle head DBE. (As you know, the 1563X pattern is the GMTK pattern. The 1562X were in the big wrecker set.)

 

[Private Lugnutz]

Bomber: The Prest-O-Lite wrench subject just popped up in this thread. You might want to take a look.

 

[LesserSon]

https://www.firstsuperspeedway.com/articles/acetylene-primer
Lugz, don’t know if you guys looked this over, but the site has several pdfs concerning PrestOLite. Looking over ads from them and competitors, it seems to me there were MANY different products and applications for non-electric light sources, and that storage and transfer solutions were not as standardized as today. So, it seems reasonable that a multitude of wrench configurations existed. I highly doubt you will be able to definitively identify the precise use of each wrench in the absence of extant canisters, lamps, and connecting lines, or detailed illustrations.
The wrenches on the linked thread you posted could be for lamps used on farm equipment, hand-carried or rural residential illumination, in addition to the bicycle, motorcycle, automotive and railway uses. Here’s mine.
Good luck!

Edit: some videos showcasing the era

 

[RubiconJK]

Found this neat little Bonney Bonaloy X-4895, 5/16 X 3/8 DBE today along with some other stuff. If I'm interpreting it correctly, the G:O date code would be July of 1951.

 

[RubiconJK]

https://www.firstsuperspeedway.com/articles/acetylene-primer
Lugz, don’t know if you guys looked this over, but the site has several pdfs concerning PrestOLite. Looking over ads from them and competitors, it seems to me there were MANY different products and applications for non-electric light sources, and that storage and transfer solutions were not as standardized as today. So, it seems reasonable that a multitude of wrench configurations existed. I highly doubt you will be able to definitively identify the precise use of each wrench in the absence of extant canisters, lamps, and connecting lines, or detailed illustrations.
The wrenches on the linked thread you posted could be for lamps used on farm equipment, hand-carried or rural residential illumination, in addition to the bicycle, motorcycle, automotive and railway uses. Here’s mine.
Good luck!

Edit: some videos showcasing the era

Thanks for posting the video. I'll try to figure out how to link your post to my thread.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

Thanks for posting the video. I'll try to figure out how to link your post to my thread.

Click on the post number (literally, the "#1865") on the upper right hand corner. That will isolate the post with its own URL for copying and pasting.

 

[RubiconJK]

Click on the post number (literally, the "#1865") on the upper right hand corner. That will isolate the post with its own URL for copying and pasting.

Thanks! Got it posted there.

 

[F124C]

K.R. Wilson, Buffalo N.Y. DBE
Poor pic quality but it says 095000XA on left and 075000XA on right
(sizes seem to be 15/16 and 3/4 )
Curious about the offset in the middle,
Was it made for a specific car/model?

AL.

 

[F124C]

Here's another wrench from K.R. Wilson.
Not sure how to describe this one so I've put it here with the DBE's
Poor pic so it says 075000SA on the left (3/4 socket) and
068187A on right (11/16 open end)
Was this made for a specific car/model?

AL.

 

[twertsy]

Some Bonney from today.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

K.R. Wilson, Buffalo N.Y.

Here's another wrench from K.R. Wilson.

AL, I just noticed you were in Ireland. Is that where you found these wrenches? Reason I ask is, K.R. Wilson (Kirke R. Wilson) was a US Army Ordnance Dept supplier in WWII. They made special service tools. Kind of like a much smaller version of Kent-Moore Organization. I'll see if I can find any record of those longer dual part numbers in any of my period references. Meanwhile, would you say the wrenches are chrome-plated, possibly cadmium-plated, or un-plated? Hard to tell from here.

 

[leg17]

Some Bonney from today.

Mighty nice Todd

 

[F124C]

AL, I just noticed you were in Ireland. Is that where you found these wrenches? Reason I ask is, K.R. Wilson (Kirke R. Wilson) was a US Army Ordnance Dept supplier in WWII. They made special service tools. Kind of like a much smaller version of Kent-Moore Organization. I'll see if I can find any record of those longer dual part numbers in any of my period references. Meanwhile, would you say the wrenches are chrome-plated, possibly cadmium-plated, or un-plated? Hard to tell from here.

Hi Lugz,

Yes I'm in Ireland. I inherited these from my grandfather in 1975. He was a Mechanic here in Ireland from c. 1920 to 1975. He worked on Ford Model T's when they were still available new and was the first Rolls-Royce trained mechanic in Ireland - so worked on the R-R Silver Ghost etc. Historical note -he was driver/mechanic of a captured (from the British) armored Rolls-Royce used to convey General Michael Collins around Ireland during the War of Independence. He would have gotten his tools wherever he could. His older tools lay untouched in boxes until I came across this forum. I'm still trying to identify some of special purpose ones. Other U.S. makes I've found are Armstrong, Blackhawk and Hinsdale. He didn't appear to have full sets of anything so might simply have gotten a few pieces at a time from other Mechanics.

Re:- finish on the K R Wilson wrenches. Not chrome as far as I can tell, might be Cadmium-plated. One pecularity is that my grandfather used to apply enamel paint to his wrenches, sometimes to one side as on these wrenches, at other times to the entire wrench. It may have been for identification/proof of ownership reasons or to prevent rust on un-plated wrenches. e.g. Standard/U.S./A.F Inch sizes were painted Green, British Standard (Whitworth) were painted Red, B.A. were done in yellow. Metric were left plain (usually, might have run out of colors ). Anyway in the case of these K.R.Wilson wrenches, I scraped/chipped away the paint which had been covering the plating for many decades and then lightly hand wire-brushed (I know, I remember your? warnings ) This resulted in the surface appearing very shiny, like fresh cadmium plating. The other sides of the wrenches, which hadn't been protected by paint look dull, as you would expect of old cadmium plating exposed to the atmosphere.

So how to explain how U.S. made tools might have ended up in Ireland? Things were very difficult in Ireland between WW1 and 2. Unlikely that very many tools were imported by agents here as most people could not afford them. However many Irish emigrated to the U.S. or had relatives there who possibly sent tools 'back home' to the 'old sod' to help out. Or perhaps some immigrants to the U.S. ,returned home after a no. of years working in the U.S., bringing their American made tools with them. I remember my late father (who had also been a Mechanic) telling me that just after WW2, some tool agents here were selling e.g. Snap-On tools, un-plated, presumably these were ex-War Dept stock/cancelled orders? I've still got some of these also.

I'll post more pics of anything I think you American guys might find interesting. And I'll use paint-stripper (not a wire brush!) in future to clean the wrenches so that they can be photographed - will just take a bit of time. That and the fact that the tools are spread around a few locations, so I'll have to try to gather them into one location to properly sort them.

Regards,

AL.

 

[BlueBomber]

Al: thanks a bunch for digging out your granddad's wrenches and sharing them with all of us! I always imagine old tools give a silent shout of joy when a tool drawer or box lid is opened for the first time in decades and they are brought into the light and appreciated. We're happy to oogle over any and every picture you care to post!

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[Private Lugnutz]

So how to explain how U.S. made tools might have ended up in Ireland?

That doesn't surprise me at all, AL. While Ireland was officially neutral, Northern Ireland certainly wasn't, and numerous US Army Air Forces activities were located there. Thanks for the background on these particular K.R. Wilson tools.

 

[BlueBomber]

I popped for another EBay lot of DBEs.

Barcalo-Buffalo raised panel offset, 3/4" x 11/16"
Barcalo raised panel name, recessed size markings, 13/16" x 7/8"

Blackhawk 15634 split groove angled, 5/8" x 11/16"
Blackhawk 15625 split groove deep offset, 3/4" x 25/32"
Blackhawk BW1214 single groove deep offset, 3/4" x 25/32"
Blackhawk BW1405 deep offset stubby, 11/16" x 5/8"

Unmarked Indestro Forged Steel, No 932 deep offset stubby, 1/2" x 9/16"
Lectrolite Tru-Fit-305 angled, 13/16" x 7/8"
New Britain NDF-108 deep offset, 7/8" x 3/4"x
2x Hexo 15184 deep offset, 7/8" x 13/16"

Forged in U.S.A. deep offset, 25/32" x 3/4"
Vulcan M8029 offset, 19mm x 17mm
Williams diamond-W angled, 25/32" x 11/16"--an odd size combination...

 

[Provincial]

K.R. Wilson was a tool supplier for Ford Motor Company. Ford supplied the big V-8 engines that powered most of the M-2 Sherman tanks, a version of the Jeep, and various trucks, among other other things (like B-24 bombers). It is possible that the grandfather found surplus U.S.-supplied tools on the market after the war at affordable prices to fill out his tool set.

WWII surplus stuff travelled all over after the war, not just where there was combat. People were starved for things like tools during the war, and afterward plenty of entrepreneurs jumped into supplying those markets with surplus (and sometimes "liberated" items.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

It is possible that the grandfather found surplus U.S.-supplied tools on the market after the war at affordable prices to fill out his tool set...[ ]...surplus (and sometimes "liberated" items).

Not only possible, but almost certainly the case. Some of our WWII tool collecting colleagues in England and Scotland, as well as France, Belgium, Norway, and Australia, often have the best finds.

 

[Jim C.]

I've been working on completing the Craftsman 26 piece metric tool set as described and depicted in the 1960 Craftsman hand tool catalog. The DOE and DBE wrenches are proving to be harder to find than I thought they'd be. Anyway, I recently found three of the six DBE wrenches.

Jim C.

 

[Provincial]

Not only possible, but almost certainly the case. Some of our WWII tool collecting colleagues in England and Scotland, as well as France, Belgium, Norway, and Australia, often have the best finds.

We sent massive amounts of materials (vehicles, aircraft, supplies, and tools) overseas for WWII. Much was dumped/destroyed, but a lot must have been either sold off or "scrapped" by contractors who diverted the good stuff into the local economies. England had a use for lots of that stuff, whereas a South Pacific island would not.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

We sent massive amounts of materials (vehicles, aircraft, supplies, and tools) overseas for WWII. Much was dumped/destroyed, but a lot must have been either sold off or "scrapped" by contractors who diverted the good stuff into the local economies. England had a use for lots of that stuff, whereas a South Pacific island would not.

And that's on top of what actually made it to the fight to begin with. Loss/pilferage rates were 30%. The GMTK was only one of several large (100+ pc) tool sets issued to troops for wheeled and tracked vehicle maintenance. Roughly 78% of 157,000 sets were accounted for in the ETO in late 1944. I've read enough on this subject to write a dissertation (if I were dissertation age!).

 

[BlueBomber]

Picked up a lonely DBE at the clean up day of a moving sale. I already have a bunch of these, but I couldn't leave the old guy there all alone.

Indestro Forged Select Steel deep offset, 1/2" x 9/16"

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