Diamond Calk Horseshoe Adjustable Wrench

[atthebeach]

I've had a Diamond Calk Horseshoe adjustable wrench in my tool box for a number of years which originally came out of my grandfather's tool box. In researching the age of this wrench I ran across a website which some of you vintage tool lovers may find of interest.

http://alloy-artifacts.org/diamond-calk-horseshoe.html#early-adj

It turns out the 4" wrench pictured below dates back to the early 1940's. My grandfather had retired from a shipyard just before WWII, was called back to work to help out with the war effort, and retired a second time when the war ended.

The 10" wrench pictured below was purchased new back in the 1960's when I was first starting to put together a toolbox.

 

[atthebeach]

Pictures.....

 

[kwoswalt99]

Yep, AA, great site!

 

[Farmall 1066]

I love Diamond stuff. Snap up damn near all of it I run across.
Nice wrench!

 

[ZRX61]

I have one. I know it was a pile of rusty seized **** until it was beadblasted & then wire-wheeled to put the shine back on it

 

[Stuart in MN]

I have a few of them.

I added a 4" to the collection since this photo was taken, plus this unusual crate opener tool.

 

[four.cycle]

I've got a couple of those.... big-*** one and a smaller one (maybe a 12" and an 8"?)
guess if those AA photos are telling the correct years, one of them might be kind of old.
maybe I'll clean the goo off of them and post some pictures later.

 

[Dennis Leigh Henry]

Nice..

Dang, now I have to remember which box mine are in.. Picts later tonight..

 

[Dennis Leigh Henry]

Nice..

Dang, now I have to remember which box mine are in.. Picts later tonight..

Could not find my standard adjustable wrench..Don't you hate it when you know you have something but cannot remember which tool box its in? However, I did snap a picture of my monkey (what's its official name??) wrench from DH.. technically adjustable..

 

[Dennis Leigh Henry]

Another related thread.. http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=22630

 

[SpyderMike]

Today I picked up a vintage Snap-On roller from the 1940s filled with tools. I found a few Diamond Calk Horseshoe tools...just doing this search to find out about them. Pretty cool. Thanks.

 

[7th Kahuna]

As a young kid, graduating from training wheels and solid rubber tires, my parents bought me an old Schwinn BMX styled bike at a neighbor's garage sale. That bike came with a tool kit and in that tool kit was a Diamond crescent wrench with a green handle as above. The bike is long gone, haven't seen the tool kit since my teens, but the Diamond remains my 'go to' crescent wrench to this day. I keep my eyes open for another one, or a different size, but I've not come across any around here.

 

[Makattak81]

24" and 18" adjustables. I've got all the sizes from 4" to 24" now. I've got a few of their cutters and pliers too.

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[davethorik]

I was disappointed to learn that Diamond adjustables made after they were merged into Triangle Corp are almost identical to the Crescent design. They have the handle depression all the way to the thumbwheel, like WF.

I just picked up a Diamalloy 24" it's a beast. Been looking for like 4 years, because I didn't want to buy one for $150 on ebay. Just never see them for sale except Pittsburg brand. I got the Diamond for $40 at a swap meet.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

I picked up this pair of Diamalloy green-handled adjustables at the flea market this morning.

In case it's not legible in the photos, these are both marked the same, with "DIAMOND TOOL AND HORSEHOE CO. / DULUTH, MINN." and the horseshoe logo on one side, and "DIAMALLOY ALLOY STEEL FORGED IN U.S.A." on the flip side. They are both marked with the imperial and metric sizes, so "10 IN. 250MM" and "8 IN. 200MM". The 10-incher has an extra forged-in marking, "D170", on the same side as a the OEM marking.

These are way outside my colleting niche, but I've heard the green-handled models are somewhat in high demand and sell well on fleaBay. Is that true of any green handled Diamalloy adjustable? Or only those with certain markings? If the latter, which markings? Lastly, when were these made?

I revived this thread, hoping davethorik, Rubicon, or another resident Diamond collector would know.

 

[d42jeep]

The ones that we’ve been finding have sold for over $20.00 each plus freight on eBay. Apparently it’s all about the green plastic, not the markings. Here is a picture of a couple of 4” Diamond adjustables I took today. The top wrench is a Williams Superjustable.
-Don

 

[RubiconJK]

I picked up this pair of Diamalloy green-handled adjustables at the flea market this morning.

In case it's not legible in the photos, these are both marked the same, with "DIAMOND TOOL AND HORSEHOE CO. / DULUTH, MINN." and the horseshoe logo on one side, and "DIAMALLOY ALLOY STEEL FORGED IN U.S.A." on the flip side.

Lugz, pretty much anything that is pre Triangle (like yours) should do well with the green handles drawing a premium as Don said.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

Thanks, guys.

 

[Modern Garage]

Gonna wake up this old thread in case anybody wonders what "Diamond Calk" means. "Calks" are like tire studs for your horses. They screw into the horseshoe for traction on slippery surfaces.
I found this box in the bottom of an old "Sherman-Klove" era toolbox I bought recently and I forgot to put a reference ruler in the photo, but the thread looks a little bigger than 3/8 NC if that helps.

Joe

 

[woody 73]

Joe this is your lucky day...

https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=267023&highlight=horseshoes

 

[Stuart in MN]

Some other interesting things they made were those folding trenching shovels and mattocks that the military used to use. My brother has one of each that my Dad got from a surplus store sometime in the 1950s.

 

[Farmer J.]

Gonna wake up this old thread in case anybody wonders what "Diamond Calk" means. "Calks" are like tire studs for your horses. They screw into the horseshoe for traction on slippery surfaces.
I found this box in the bottom of an old "Sherman-Klove" era toolbox I bought recently and I forgot to put a reference ruler in the photo, but the thread looks a little bigger than 3/8 NC if that helps.

Joe

Thanks for posting that information, as I did wonder what 'Calk' meant although I have heard of screw in horseshoe studs. I do remember seeing someone use some once in icy conditions but it was a long time ago, and the threaded hole in the horse shoe was messed up with mud and grit and the horse was getting impatient.

 

[Modern Garage]

Woody, that's some diligent researching there. Thanks for the link.

Farmer J, for some reason I knew what a calk was (don't know where or why I learned it - I'm not THAT old) but I had never held one in my hand before.

Joe

 

[RubiconJK]

Reviving this old thread after finding a couple 8" Diamalloy adjustables today at the flea market. One of them has the broached end and the other is the "Tool Steel" version.

 

[d42jeep]

Reviving this old thread after finding a couple 8" Diamalloy adjustables today at the flea market. One of them has the broached end and the other is the "Tool Steel" version.

I suspect that the one with the broached hanging hole is wartime and won’t have the early Diamond horseshoe marking on the opposite side. I don’t know about the other one.
-Don

 

[RubiconJK]

I suspect that the one with the broached hanging hole is wartime and won’t have the early Diamond horseshoe marking on the opposite side. I don’t know about the other one.
-Don

Don, I think you are right about the broached hole model being wartime. From what I've read, the other one could have been produced anytime from the 40's to late 50's. Reinforced hanger holes like this started in the early 40's. They changed the name from Diamond Calk to Diamond Tool in the late 50's and this one is marked Calk.

 

[d42jeep]

Yeah. The WW2 collectors look for the ones missing the horseshoe image. It’s generally believed that Diamond left the horseshoe off of the wartime wrenches. Of course the wartime ones generally won’t be Chrome plated unless they are really early war. Here are some missing the horseshoe that I took during a cloudburst. It looks like your lower wrench is postwar.
-Don

 

[Leviton]

Found these today at a garage sale. A grand total of $2.

Nice having the 9/16" box end on the painted one.

 

[d42jeep]

I found a 10” wartime version today at the Tahoe flea. It had some rust issues and I might have left it behind had I not noticed the manufacturing gaffe. The wrench has the size marking for the broached hanging hole but the broaching was never done.
-Don

 

[RubiconJK]

I found a 10” wartime version today at the Tahoe flea. It had some rust issues and I might have left it behind had I not noticed the manufacturing gaffe. The wrench has the size marking for the broached hanging hole but the broaching was never done.
-Don

Wow, good eye Don!

 

[Private Lugnutz]

Picked up a 4-incher today. I've only ever found three (3) 4-inchers in the wild: a J.P. Danielson, a Utica, and now this Diamalloy.

 

[r_olson_06]

Picked up a 4-incher today. I've only ever found three (3) 4-inchers in the wild: a J.P. Danielson, a Utica, and now this Diamalloy.

Nice pick up. 4" are pretty common in these parts. Some flea vendors have a ring full of them that looks like a high school janitors key ring. Most of the time they are $10-$20 a piece for them. Crescent wrenches bring good money in the ag community as the large ones double as a hammer.

Looking for the following Plomb Pebbles Wrench 3061

 

[Private Lugnutz]

There was a guy a few years ago with a stringer of them like that. Similar prices or higher. I try to stay away from tool vendors if I can. This one was in a pile of rusty tools on a $1 table. The end wrenches were a little crustier and they are still soaking.

 

[pedalwrench]

Is there a source for trans green plasti dip for the handles on these?? I have a few old diamond tools n it would be nice to bring them back to their original green glory. But I've never seen green dip. Any hints?

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[davethorik]

Here are my Snap-on/Blue-Point dual branded, Diamond made 4"ers. 1 each black oxide and chrome. I found these both within a 3 mile radius of where I live and both at yard/garage sales. I've seen diamond/Diamalloy ones but they're usually beat up or overpriced.

 

[lardy1]

I know this is a long shot, but...…..I'm looking for the threaded pin for a 12" Diamond Caulk adjustable wrench.

 

[Stuart in MN]

Picked up a 4-incher today. I've only ever found three (3) 4-inchers in the wild: a J.P. Danielson, a Utica, and now this Diamalloy.

It's funny, even though they're the smallest ones they tend to sell for a lot more than the bigger ones - I suppose just because they're cute. It took a while before I was able to find a 4" Diamond for a reasonable price.

 

[d42jeep]

Picked up a 4-incher today. I've only ever found three (3) 4-inchers in the wild: a J.P. Danielson, a Utica, and now this Diamalloy.

With the broached hanging hole and lack of horseshoe, I would guess that it’s a wartime example. I checked my Diamond Calk wrench and the two newer Diamond Tool examples and they all have the horseshoe emblem.
-Don

 

[Downwindtracker 2]

Gonna wake up this old thread in case anybody wonders what "Diamond Calk" means. "Calks" are like tire studs for your horses. They screw into the horseshoe for traction on slippery surfaces.
I found this box in the bottom of an old "Sherman-Klove" era toolbox I bought recently and I forgot to put a reference ruler in the photo, but the thread looks a little bigger than 3/8 NC if that helps.

Joe

Calks also refer to the studs in logger's boots. In fact the boots themselves would be called calks . The old logging camp wood walkways were a mess.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

With the broached hanging hole and lack of horseshoe, I would guess that it’s a wartime example. I checked my Diamond Calk wrench and the two newer Diamond Tool examples and they all have the horseshoe emblem.

As I said on the Garage Sale thread, I would've concluded they were wartime for the same reasons, but I was concerned about the lack of space on the handle and I didn't have any pre- or post-war 4-inchers to look at, so thanks for confirming!

Calks also refer to the studs in logger's boots. In fact the boots themselves would be called calks.

As long as we're going back to that, and sort of sideways, there was a wrench patented by the Neverslip Mfg Co of New Brunswick, NJ to turn the calks in and out of the shoes. They are popular with the horse-and-buggy tools collector set, and I don't have one (I'd like to run into one eventually...) to show, but I did post an illustration and talk about it on a thread for a pair of lineman's pliers with replaceable jaws that the same company made. Linked here.