Barcalo Buffalo Tools

[Semi-hole mechanic]

I have exactly one Barcalo. It's a DOE 9/16 x 5/8. It was in my dad's toolbox but not real sure where it came from as Dad was usually a Cman guy.

 

[Semi-hole mechanic]

Oops...pics didnt upload. Try this again.

 

[Semi-hole mechanic]

Crappy pics but wrench has a part # of TO1820.

 

[d42jeep]

Your wrench was probably made after 1963 after the Crescent Niagara buyout had taken place. Very close to the end of the line for Barcalo branded tools.
-Don

 

[Isaiah6113]

Your raised panel wrenches are a little unusual in that they have the ISN (Industry Standard Number) marked on the raised panel. They are certainly pre ‘60, probably mid ‘50s on. The smooth wrench is earlier but postwar. The C markings are probably insignificant forging numbers.
-Don

Don,

Thank you very much for your insights. It’s great to know the details on these old fellows.

Matthew


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[d42jeep]

Matthew, it’s my pleasure.
Here are some DOE wrenches I received from outofbounds today. Thanks!
-Don

 

[d42jeep]

Here is a picture of my Barcalo Double Grip wrenches. I’m currently missing the 3/4” X 7/8” if anybody has an extra. Edit-found one! The second picture is my collection of Barcalo raised pad DOE wrenches with the sizes marked on the pad. It took quite a while to complete this set.
-Don

 

[outofbounds]

Here is a picture of my Barcalo Double Grip wrenches. I’m currently missing the 3/4” X 7/8” if anybody has an extra. The second picture is my collection of Barcalo raised pad DOE wrenches with the sizes marked on the pad. It took quite a while to complete this set.
-Don

Question for you Don......Noticing the wrench in the center of your Double Grips doesn't actually have a "Double Grip", but does share the same shape handle. Ironically, I just came across a nearly identical Ford (w/stamped Script logo)

Would you know Barcolo to have made any of these for Ford?

I'll post a pic later, as it's enjoying a bath a present.

 

[d42jeep]

It never surprises me to find somebody else that Barcalo made tools for. I have a Barcalo auto wrench with Ford Script and Barcalos are the wrenches of choice for WW2 Ford GPW Jeep’s onboard toolsets which is how I got started collecting them.
-Don

 

[d42jeep]

My neighbor brought me up some Barcalo tools he found at Southern California swap meets over the last year. They range from wartime pad stamped DOE wrenches to one of the last DOE wrenches to be marked Barcalo in the ‘60s. The 1942 Barcalo ad was posted on G503 by a fellow collector from Tennessee.
-Don

 

[outofbounds]

Here is a picture of my Barcalo Double Grip wrenches. I’m currently missing the 3/4” X 7/8” if anybody has an extra. The second picture is my collection of Barcalo raised pad DOE wrenches with the sizes marked on the pad. It took quite a while to complete this set.
-Don

I have to apologize, Don...... My Ford wrench, under closer inspection after a mild clean up, isn't a Barcalo at all. Marked with a Circle M opposite the script Ford logo, I'll guess is Morse? Has some funny unmarked fittings too. (marked as 1 and 2) I was fooled by the bowed beam, akin to your double grips. (the middle one of which I believed not to have the same double stacked beam)

 

[Private Lugnutz]

Moore Drop Forge

 

[d42jeep]

Even though i received one of these military marked brake eccentric DOE wrenches a couple of months ago, I couldn’t resist this one offered in its original box. It arrived today from a collector in Arizona.
-Don

 

[Isaiah6113]

Hello all,

These arrived a couple of days ago. I'm not sure where these fit overall in Barcalo's production. All have a matte silver-bronzey sort of finish. The open ends have casting marks along the sides. The box ends have a better final finish.

Really pleased with the box ends, they cleaned up nicely and have little to no wear. They are numbered, 7, 5, 3, -, on one end, don't know what that's about.

The open ends are nice too, one exception is the 3/4-end of the 3/4-5/8 has some damage, it has been ground down. Bummer, I didn't notice until I received them, but the seller was very responsive. The 9/16-1/2 is in nice shape, and the largest of the three, well, I'm not sure that it has ever seen a nut.

Thanks for looking!

Matthew A.

 

[d42jeep]

My tool collecting counterpart in Wales alerted me to these NOS Barcalo 731A DOE wrenches listed on eBay still in cosmoline. The price wasn’t bad so I stocked up. They are both Ford GPW toolset and GMTK correct.
-Don

 

[woodland_hank]

Just scored a nice double open end set in the original roll from the local Habit for Humanity store. Any idea on what year? Is this pre-acquisition by Crescent? 1950's?

 

[d42jeep]

I would date them slightly earlier than 1958. Although some similar rolls were still shown in the ‘60 catalog, the raised panels of the wrenches were changed to rectangular by 1958. After the sale to Crescent Niagara in 1963, wrenches were no longer marked Buffalo.
-Don

 

[outofbounds]

Just scored a nice double open end set in the original roll from the local Habit for Humanity store. Any idea on what year? Is this pre-acquisition by Crescent? 1950's?

$7.00??? SEVEN BUCKS?? You ****!

 

[woodland_hank]

Right place, right time. They are like brand new.

 

[d42jeep]

Hello all,

These arrived a couple of days ago. I'm not sure where these fit overall in Barcalo's production. All have a matte silver-bronzey sort of finish. The open ends have casting marks along the sides. The box ends have a better final finish.

Really pleased with the box ends, they cleaned up nicely and have little to no wear. They are numbered, 7, 5, 3, -, on one end, don't know what that's about.

The open ends are nice too, one exception is the 3/4-end of the 3/4-5/8 has some damage, it has been ground down. Bummer, I didn't notice until I received them, but the seller was very responsive. The 9/16-1/2 is in nice shape, and the largest of the three, well, I'm not sure that it has ever seen a nut.

Thanks for looking!

Matthew A.

Those flat panel wrenches don’t appear in catalogs so dating them is difficult. My best guess would be early to mid ‘50s but maybe as far back as late 40s. I think the numbers on the DBE wrenches indicate that they appeared in a set numbered maybe 1 through 7 or 8.
-Don

 

[Isaiah6113]

Those flat panel wrenches don’t appear in catalogs so dating them is difficult. My best guess would be early to mid ‘50s but maybe as far back as late 40s. I think the numbers on the DBE wrenches indicate that they appeared in a set numbered maybe 1 through 7 or 8.
-Don

Don,

Thank you very much for your expertise! Barcalo are rare as hen’s teeth around here. But I managed to pick up two other flat panel, so now I have a reasonable selection and can use them from time to time. They feel great in the hand.

Thanks,

Matthew


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[Provincial]

After the discussion of the flat panel DBE's in posts #334, 340, and 341, I looked at my collection and found that I have numbers 1, 5, 6, and 7. To verify the size, #6 is 11/16 x 3/4. It would appear that the number 2 in the sequence may be 7/16 x 1/2.

I also found that my raised panel offset DBE's all have a raised "0" forged in, except that the 1/2 x 9/16 also has a raised "2" forged in the opposite side. This is at odds with the numbering of the flat panel set.

 

[d42jeep]

The forging marks E, O and * are common on various Barcalo wrenches. On my keeper smooth panel DBE wrenches it looks as if they go from 1 to 9. It seems like they also used a numbering system on Whitworth DBE wrenches commonly only found in the U.K. I haven’t run across any Whitworth Barcalo wrenches in the US.
-Don

 

[outofbounds]

One Barcalo survivor plucked from a 3 week old "tool garage sale".
Is this typically what one might call a textile wrench?

 

[d42jeep]

I think that one might have been slightly user modified.
I have to give a big shout out to Catfish Dan for a large donation to the Barcalo Shrine as well as helping with an obscure item for my new Plomb 1/4” master set.
-Don

 

[BlakeTheCarGuy]

Here is a Barcalo Buffalo wrench I got at the pawn shop yesterday. It’s a 1 1/8 on both ends but it’s a combination wrench not a DBE.


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[d42jeep]

I cleaned up some of the tools from Catfish Dan in readiness for adding to the collection. The pipe wrench looked great after it came out of the evaporust. The 12” adjustable is back to being functional after having been used as a hammer by a previous owner.
-Don

 

[Catfishdan]

I cleaned up some of the tools from Catfish Dan in readiness for adding to the collection. The pipe wrench looked great after it came out of the evaporust. The 12” adjustable is back to being functional after having been used as a hammer by a previous owner.
-Don

Wow. That pipe wrench does look good. It was pretty rough. Well done.

 

[d42jeep]

Thanks. I couldn’t believe that the jaws were so pristine.
-Don

 

[outofbounds]

I have come across a lot of Barcalo DOBE raised panel wrenches along the way, but this is the first one I've seen sans the offset, other then the one that was presently in the very first post in this thread. I'm curious if the "E" forged into the wrench is of any particular relevance to WW2 era tools in the same sense as Snap-On tools coded E.

 

[d42jeep]

I believe that they are just forging marks. See post #343.
-Don

 

[Farmer J.]

The forging marks E, O and * are common on various Barcalo wrenches. On my keeper smooth panel DBE wrenches it looks as if they go from 1 to 9. It seems like they also used a numbering system on Whitworth DBE wrenches commonly only found in the U.K. I haven’t run across any Whitworth Barcalo wrenches in the US.
-Don

Just to add to Don's observation:
It appears that the Whitworth DBE wrenches castings were numbered 1,2,3,4,5 as shown in post no. 229 and also the pics of the ones I saw for sale, post 295
My Whitworth wrench is a 'no. 5', 11/16W and 3/4W. It was here in the UK before my time and I assume bought locally here from an Agricultural supplies.
My AF came in WW2 as Lend Lease:
Casting Mark 'O' on the 7/8" x 13/16"
Casting mark 'B' on the 15/16" x 1"
None of them have an 'E' , or any other marks.
Something somewhere on this farm has an * but i can't find it!

 

[LesserSon]

Don,
Out of general curiosity, do you have other Barcalo-branded Stillson-pattern pipe wrenches, and were they also manufactured by JPDanielson?

 

[d42jeep]

Don,
Out of general curiosity, do you have other Barcalo-branded Stillson-pattern pipe wrenches, and were they also manufactured by JPDanielson?

I do have a set. If Danielson made Plomb Stillsons I assume they made Barcalo’s as well since they are so similar.
-Don

 

[d42jeep]

I had some additions to add to the plier and adjustable section (toolbox) of the Barcalo shrine yesterday so I took several pictures. First the adjustable wrenches.
The first batch don’t have reinforced hanger holes and the second group does. The third batch are more conventional. The last picture is of two wrenches that were made in the former Danielson factory in 1952.
-Don

 

[d42jeep]

Part two. The second picture shows the Danielson dating format. Even though the finishes are quite different, they were made at the same time. Next are my two curved handle adjustables followed by the Auto wrenches.
-Don

 

[d42jeep]

Lesser Son pointed out that the pipe wrenches looked Danielson and when I took a very close look I found some Danielson date codes proving his point.
-Don

 

[Username already in use]

Found a few Barcalo today. 8" adjustable and a deuce of wartime DOEs - 1033C and 1027C

 

[Toyo72]

I have a couple of Barcalo wrenches, handed down from my Grandfather to my Dad to me. Bought new way back when. I've had them for 20+ years, solid tools. I'll have to take a proper picture.

 

[d42jeep]

Although I resisted for quite a while, I finally made a best offer for this Barcalo Double Grip wrench located in Israel. The price of the wrench wasn’t astronomical but shipping was pricy. The reason I had to have it was that it was a size not shown in the catalogs. This one gets me up to ten different sizes.
-Don