Peck Stowe and Wilcox
- Thread starter Apache3057
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Apache3057
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ganymede
Well-known member
Great wrench that looks to be in good shape too.
I've got one that's not quite as old stamped " solid bar"
with a patent date .
I've got one that's not quite as old stamped " solid bar"
with a patent date .
Richard Cranium
Well-known member
looks like a nice old wrench and in great shape.
OP
Apache3057
Well-known member
Thank you
Dennis Leigh Henry
Well-known member
They made lots of stuff for early Industrial Arts shops.. I believe I have some hand seamers, riviters, and maybe a set of calipers or two around.. I'll have to dig them out....
OP
Apache3057
Well-known member
Would love to see them!! I am in Maine for a few days and I am hoping to go on a scavenger hunt for new tools!!
davethorik
Well-known member
P.S.&W., Pexto are one of the brands I'm always on the lookout for. I have 2 Pexto and 1 P.S.&W. Cleveland, O. monkey wrenches.
I also have a Pexto claw hammer head, and I used to have a set of dividers but someone wanted them more than I did. I think that's all that I can remember that I have.
I also have a Pexto claw hammer head, and I used to have a set of dividers but someone wanted them more than I did. I think that's all that I can remember that I have.
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d42jeep
Well-known member
I have a couple of WW2 vintage wrenches marked PEXTO. One has a wood (perfect) handle and one has a metal handle.
-Don
-Don
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Dennis Leigh Henry
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OP
Apache3057
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Great pictures!!
Private Lugnutz
Well-known member
I have PEXTO tools, including a monkey wrench, common 6" slip joint pliers, and some other things, but, as first reported on the Garage Sale thread, the pair of pliers I picked up this morning at the flea market have me stumped.
They're marked P.S. & W. Co. on one handle just below the pivot. That's all well and good. But they're also marked PESCO directly above that! Not PEXTO or the oval PEXTO trademark.
After eliminating (a), a die mistake, and (b), an early or alternative acronym that was never trademarked and nobody knows about, I settled on (c), they were made by Peck Stow and Wilcox for Pesco, a division of Borg-Warner that made hydraulic equipment, fuel pumps, air pumps and the like before and during WWII for airplanes. Akin to tools Bonney made for WRIGHT Aircraft, marked Bonney and Wright. And the similarity (of PESCO to PEXTO) is just a weird coincidence.
Thoughts?
They're marked P.S. & W. Co. on one handle just below the pivot. That's all well and good. But they're also marked PESCO directly above that! Not PEXTO or the oval PEXTO trademark.
After eliminating (a), a die mistake, and (b), an early or alternative acronym that was never trademarked and nobody knows about, I settled on (c), they were made by Peck Stow and Wilcox for Pesco, a division of Borg-Warner that made hydraulic equipment, fuel pumps, air pumps and the like before and during WWII for airplanes. Akin to tools Bonney made for WRIGHT Aircraft, marked Bonney and Wright. And the similarity (of PESCO to PEXTO) is just a weird coincidence.
Thoughts?
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I think you’re right on there, Greg. There are ads for salvaged PESCO pumps and other aircraft equipment in post-War Popular Mechanics online and a few sets of pliers like yours for sale on auction sites. Dunno if it’s related or not, but looks like hydraulic pumps are still made by a company called PESCO?
Here’s my contribution - a few PS&WCo/PEXTO pliers to add to the thread:
Here’s my contribution - a few PS&WCo/PEXTO pliers to add to the thread:
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bczygan
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four.cycle
Well-known member
Private Lugnutz said:
I knew I'd heard the name before.
It's in that "list" I compiled of all of the US hand tool manufacturers and posted here about a year ago.
I had associated it with Peck, Stow, and Wilcox as well.
I stumbled on the name in an old (now deleted) Ebay listing for a pair of slip-joint pliers.
A current search turns up:
What I would have to ask is:
Why would a successful division of Borg-Warner want to crank out slip-joint pliers alongside their cutting-edge hydraulic pumps and other components for aircraft?
Why would Peck, Stow, & Wilcox, already marketing a hand tool line stamped with their "PEXTO" moniker, want to invent yet another acronym brand name for the same product they were already selling, and still stamp their "P.S. & W." initials on it?
Either way doesn't make a damn bit of sense.
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Private Lugnutz
Well-known member
Agreed. And those kinds of interrogatives helped me arrive at my conclusion. For PESCO (for their installation and maintenance shops/kits), by P. S. & W. Co. The one little hiccup in my mind on this was the full logo. Why the full logo when they had been using PEXTO on their own tools, including slip-joint pliers, for quite awhile when these pliers were ostensibly made for PESCO? Then it hit me. If we think PESCO and P.S.& W.Co. is odd and potentially confusing, maybe they thought PESCO and PEXTO on the same pliers would've looked even stranger.
EDIT: I'd say that I bet a lot of people (e.g., eBay sellers and buyers) make the same mistake - looking at that PESCO and associating it with Peck Stow and Wilcox/PEXTO, maybe even identifying it as another Peck Stow and Wilcox brand, with no knowledge of the pump outfit, but I don't think PEXTO is that big of a draw in the collectibles world anyway.
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Private Lugnutz
Well-known member
I hope you find it. In the meantime, I'm going to put this on my "research to do" list. If we can confirm it, we can update Tools Archive. (I'd say we can also write to the guy at Alloy Artifacts, but that's a lost cause.)
The catalog page is interesting. That would seem to indicate that they were using PEXTO and PESCO at the same time!
EDIT: The PESCO branded slip-joints (model No. 0) appear to be the same as the PEXTO branded slip-joints (model No. W0) in size options, and they weigh exactly the same. But they cost considerably less - hinting at economy line. The difference would have to be finish.
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four.cycle
Well-known member
^ that would be the only thing that makes sense, if it is indeed the case that both product names were being shown on the same catalog page.
note on the two examples above that I found on Ebay last night that one is stamped with "P.S. & W" and the other is just stamped "Made in USA" (in addition to the "PESCO" name.)
yeah.. price point thing - different finish - would be the only thing that makes sense.
all you have to do is find a cherry set of each model to make a comparison - kind of hard to tell what kind of finish they originally had when they're all rusted up.
same pliers, different catalog:
note on the two examples above that I found on Ebay last night that one is stamped with "P.S. & W" and the other is just stamped "Made in USA" (in addition to the "PESCO" name.)
yeah.. price point thing - different finish - would be the only thing that makes sense.
all you have to do is find a cherry set of each model to make a comparison - kind of hard to tell what kind of finish they originally had when they're all rusted up.
same pliers, different catalog:
Private Lugnutz
Well-known member
They do have the same model numbers. But note that the model No. W0 pliers in the Pexto No. 38 catalog aren't given any model name, while they're called "Wilcox" in your hardware catalog, akin to the No. 0 pliers being called "Pesco." I'm starting to think Pesco may be a model name, not a company trademark name, like PEXTO.
I think it's safe to say my theory about the Borg-Warner connection was dead wrong, though.
four.cycle
Well-known member
^ note that the "WO" "Wilcox" model is highly polished, whereas the "O" "Pesco" is only "brightly plated".
if you look closely, it appears as though the "PESCO" model also employs one end of the handles as a screwdriver tip (like the example from Ebay I posted above.)
I'm leaning to finish being the difference. Maybe "PESCO" was an early attempt at a price-point product line.
if you look closely, it appears as though the "PESCO" model also employs one end of the handles as a screwdriver tip (like the example from Ebay I posted above.)
I'm leaning to finish being the difference. Maybe "PESCO" was an early attempt at a price-point product line.
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RubiconJK
Well-known member
Resurrecting this thread after finding this pair of PS&W CO #90 6 1/2" lineman's pliers today at the flea market. There is no PEXTO marking anywhere on these and after doing a bit of searching I didn't find much discussion about the non use of the PEXTO brand and whether the PS&W marking pre or post dates or was used simultaneously with PEXTO? The only other thread I found with a similar find was this one. https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showpost.php?p=6056460&postcount=1
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Peck, Stowe & Wilcox registered the PEXTO in an oval trademark in 1915, and shows its first use in mid-1914. I believe your pliers date to 1914 or earlier.
http://alloy-artifacts.org/peck-stow-wilcox.html#history
Popular Mechanics, April 1910:
1919 ad:
http://alloy-artifacts.org/peck-stow-wilcox.html#history
Popular Mechanics, April 1910:
1919 ad:
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RubiconJK
Well-known member
Thanks for the reply. They are in really good condition to be so old! I had looked at AA and saw the use of the "clinched fist" PS&W logo, but there is no clinched fist on mine either. I had also looked at a couple older but undated catalogs on Tool Archives, but they both showed the PEXTO branding on everything. I also wondered about the use of lineman's pliers that early, but confirmed in some older Klein literature that lineman's pliers were generally available at least by 1910 for use on telegraph and other applications.Peck, Stowe & Wilcox registered the PEXTO in an oval trademark in 1915, and shows its first use in mid-1914. I believe your pliers date to 1914 or earlier.
http://alloy-artifacts.org/peck-stow-wilcox.html#history
Popular Mechanics, April 1910:
1919 ad:
d42jeep
Well-known member
I took a couple of pictures of some tools for this thread. The first two pictures are a pair of Pexto dykes. The other pictures are of an early P S & W small chrome lineman’s pliers.
-Don
-Don
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RubiconJK
Well-known member
Don, the markings on our lineman pliers are very similar. Have you seen many others like this?
d42jeep
Well-known member
I think that I had a larger pair of lineman’s pliers marked P S & W but most of my other tools just have the Pexto in the oval.
-Don
-Don
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If my memory serves me, PS&W marks generally pre-date PEXTO.
Polo_Karl
Active member
I found one of the PESCO and PS&W labeled slip joints with a bunch of import slip joints that came with a ratchet I wanted at an auction. Slightly different shape than the one Lugz posted. Was going to try unload all the pliers on offerup cause I hate having tools I never use laying around but maybe I should rescue this one.
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Private Lugnutz
Well-known member
Is that a machinery museum, your shop, or a machine museum in your shop? 
Wonderful.
Wonderful.
Private Lugnutz
Well-known member
As first reported in the 2018 Garage Sale thread yesterday, I picked up this Peck, Stow, and Wilcox “Steel Screw No. 4 ” at the flea market.
I knew from the shape of the wingnut that it was old. The patent info (See Photo 3), which seems to be a strip that is patch-welded on to the clamp, not originally forged-in, like the rest of the markings, is illegible, but I can read enough of it to make out a “PAT. JUNE”, followed by an illegible space, followed by “JULY 10, ‘88”.
Putting that together with the information on DATAMP, this clamp was granted its Design Patent (D18,376) on June 5, 1888, for the frame, and a Utility Patent (385,983) a month later for the recessed screw. DATAMP link with images of the patent and link to full patent on USPTO site is here.
I knew from the shape of the wingnut that it was old. The patent info (See Photo 3), which seems to be a strip that is patch-welded on to the clamp, not originally forged-in, like the rest of the markings, is illegible, but I can read enough of it to make out a “PAT. JUNE”, followed by an illegible space, followed by “JULY 10, ‘88”.
Putting that together with the information on DATAMP, this clamp was granted its Design Patent (D18,376) on June 5, 1888, for the frame, and a Utility Patent (385,983) a month later for the recessed screw. DATAMP link with images of the patent and link to full patent on USPTO site is here.
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dr_clyde
Well-known member
Not exactly a hand tool, but my only PEXTO. 10 foot mechanical shear, 10 ga capacity. 17,000 lbs of love.
Modern Garage
Well-known member
I've been hoping to get an idea of age for this little adjustable wrench I found in a junk store (It said "Antiques" over the door but the place was filled with junk), but the chronology of P. S. & W. tool labels seems to be less than linear so I'm still wondering.
This one clearly spent some time out of doors judging by the pitting. I've only scrubbed it with some soap and a toothbrush and then a wipe down with oil. The thumbwheel looks good as in the picture but the matching jaw teeth are badly corroded away so this one's a "looker" not a "user".
But it's so cute I let it hang around anyway...
Joe
This one clearly spent some time out of doors judging by the pitting. I've only scrubbed it with some soap and a toothbrush and then a wipe down with oil. The thumbwheel looks good as in the picture but the matching jaw teeth are badly corroded away so this one's a "looker" not a "user".
But it's so cute I let it hang around anyway...
Joe
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paulm12
Well-known member
Your "Double Cutting Shears" are listed in the 1947 PEXTO catalog, top of page 56:
https://archive.org/details/PextoBookletNo139A/page/n57
https://archive.org/details/PextoBookletNo139A/page/n57
paulm12
Well-known member
wow. thanks notlob. I started cleaning them up. The blade is straight, but the slotted piece has a few dings.
