Williams” Superrench” to Vulcan

I found what I assumed would be a Superrench yesterday but upon viewing the reverse side I found “VULCAN”.
I like these wrenches, and I have similar wrenches in different configurations including DOE, DBE, combination.
This is new to me to find Vulcan branding.
When did this take place? Did it continue long? I have seen Vulcan wrenches at a few retailers, and we have some at work. I never paid much attention to them.



Thank you in advance for dating this dual branded wrench.
alton1911

alton1911 said:

I found what I assumed would be a Superrench yesterday but upon viewing the reverse side I found “VULCAN”.
I like these wrenches, and I have similar wrenches in different configurations including DOE, DBE, combination.
This is new to me to find Vulcan branding.
When did this take place? Did it continue long? I have seen Vulcan wrenches at a few retailers, and we have some at work. I never paid much attention to them.



Thank you in advance for dating this dual branded wrench.
alton1911

Click to expand...

No idea on the exact date, but I asked about a set of Vulcan branded sockets I found a while back. I think the consensus was that Vulcan was a tool truck line of tools Williams came out with.

I don't recall seeing a Vulcan wrench that wasn't metric. I have a set of metric Vulcans. They were made by Williams.

https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=30428

This topic comes up from time to time. Some time back I conducted extensive research into the JH Williams Co after it was acquired by United Greenfield in 1958. I've forgotten some of the details since, but to the best of my recollection and records:

Sometime in the early 1960s, UG decided to start a truck tool line, and registered the VULCAN trademark in 1965. From the examples I've seen, Vulcan were essentially re-branded JHW tools, though I'm sure there were some tools unique to either line. The end wrenches I've seen all appeared identical to the JHW wrenches current at the time but just marked differently.

TRW acquired UG 1968 and was assigned the Vulcan trademark in 1969. It appears that the Vulcan truck tool line continued through that time.

I think that TRW ended the Vulcan brand tools and the tool truck distribution sometime in the late 1970s at the same time it had decided to re-position JHW as an industrial tool line and stop actively pursuing the auto mechanics trade. This was the end of the JHW Vulcan line.

TRW assigned the Vulcan trademark back to JHW when it divested itself of that company in 1984. There's no evidence that production/distribution of Vulcan branded tools ever re-commenced.

JHW changed to Williams Hand Tools in 1986, The Vulcan trademark was acquired from it by a DEEARBY CORP., a foreign company that appears to have registered in the USA specifically for this acquisition. Other assets may have been transferred at this time too. This is where Williams and Vulcan diverged from one another.

Williams went bankrupt in 1988 and was acquired by MLIF Acquisition, which then changed its name to JH Williams Industrial Products. It was under this company that the remaining JHW assets were liquidated. Snap-on acquired the remaining intellectual property (brand names, trademarks, patents, etc) from this entity in 1993.

Meanwhile, the Vulcan trademark was transferred by Deearby to a finance company Fleet Factors Corp in 1989. Reason for this is unclear but may have been part of a settlement for a defaulted loan. FFC sold the rights in 1990 to a TSC company that soon after changed its name to Post Tool. An importer based in Calif., from what I recall, Post intended to revive the Vulcan brand with imported product.

Apparently in another financial settlement, Post Tool transferred ownership of all its assets and intellectual property (including the Vulcan trademark) to BankAmerica Business Credit in 1996, no doubt from a business loan default. Then in 1999, BABC transferred the trademark from its Post Tool holding to BABC proper. That is where the trademark registration finally died as it was never renewed. It's free and clear today for anyone to claim it if they wanted to.

The name had been around for a long time.
The plant in Buffalo was on Vulcan street.
Early auto tools were identified as Vulcan prior to WWI.
Seems they revived the name for the purposes explained by 'dad' above.

Thank you all again. I appreciate the answers. I will be looking for the Vulcan marks now.
alton1911

leg17 said:

The name had been around for a long time.
The plant in Buffalo was on Vulcan street.
Early auto tools were identified as Vulcan prior to WWI.
Seems they revived the name for the purposes explained by 'dad' above.

Click to expand...

Yes, the name has been used on a variety of tools. There seems to be a general consensus that that the Williams related use of the name was derived from the street name. I too seem to recall something about pre-ww2 usage and that Williams itself may have used the name on some tools at that time, so it looks as if United Greenfield 'revived' it in the 1960s for its tool truck line as you say.

Here is a partial image of a military welders set from 1945. Check out item A.
-Don

d42jeep said:

Here is a partial image of a military welders set from 1945. Check out item A.
-Don

Click to expand...

Thanks for the pix, Don. I seem to recall seeing Williams using this name on older tools, and this is a good example.

My write-up is limited to the time when UG registered an official trademark for the Vulcan name for its 1960s-70s truck tool line. I found no record that JHW itself (pre-UG, 1958 and prior) ever officially registered a trademark for this name. It seems the only documentation we have are the artifacts themselves like the one you posted. It apparently just used it as a brand name on certain tools without concern that anyone would try to copy it in an infringing way. Perhaps it felt the Williams name itself carried the gravitas for the brand and Vulcan may have been thought of more as a model name. It might make an interesting case study to determine the time span of its use and on what tools it was used.