Barcalo Comb Wrench Set
- Thread starter Rickster
- Start date
cruiser808
Well-known member
Rick, you're the bomb. How do you keep coming up with these treasures?
cruiser808
Well-known member
There ya go, anyway you cut it Rick is the best for all of us on the JG board. Thank you kind sir.
Uncle Buck
Banned
That picture of those wrenches just provided the answer to something I have been curious about for years. Many years ago I picked up several wrenches looking absolutely identical to those except they were marked Crescent. Now I know who the original MFG was! No mistaking it, the design on the box end is quite unique. Thank you for the lesson.
krusty the clown
Member Emeritus
yes......crescent was the mfr. crescent niagra bought barcalo's tool operations so they could concentrate on making recliners
Uncle Buck
Banned
yes......crescent was the mfr. crescent niagra bought barcalo's tool operations so they could concentrate on making recliners
WOW! I got it backwards, I figured Barcalo was the MFG, not Crescent!
UB, remember those Powr-Kraft double box end wrenches that were for sale here a while back? They have the exact same box end style and overall design. I bought them and they are very nice BTW. I guess they were made by Crescent for Montgomery Wards?
Good luck on the sale Rickster!! Those wrenches look awesome.
PowderKeg
Well-known member
yes......crescent was the mfr. crescent niagra bought barcalo's tool operations so they could concentrate on making recliners
From Alloy Artifacts - the patent for that box end design was assigned to Barcalo in 1956. Crescent-Niagra (which was formed to acquire Crescent Tools in 1960) acquired Barcalo in 1963 and started branding some wrenches with "Crescent". C-N had also bought up Billings & Spencer and some others before they themselves were bought by Cooper Industries in 1968.
So while you could say that Crescent was the manufacturer, it's only because they acquired the original manufacturing company - Barcalo.
http://www.google.com/patents?vid=USPATD177636
http://www.alloy-artifacts.com/barcalo-buffalo.html
http://www.alloy-artifacts.com/crescent-tool.html#history
Besides a few "Crescent" and "Lifetime" branded wrenches from the C-N period, I've also got a few from Belknap Hardware's "Blue Grass" brand and a Powr-Kraft or two, all obvious descendants of papa Barcalo. It's still an unaswered question though, did Barcalo make wrenches for Belknap and Monkey Wards (and maybe others as well) pre C-N buyout, or after as part of C-N?
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krusty the clown
Member Emeritus
thats correct...........manufactured by crescent using equipment and facilities once owned by barcalo
MOPARHOUND!
Well-known member
Tough decision, those would compliment a set of Powr-Krafts nicely in one of the tooboxes. 
The 3/8ths Barcalo in my pic has a bad open end, and the box end is the traditional style, with the entire box end at 15 degrees to the wrench beam.
The other set of Barcalo's have the same box end, but a different open end with a chrome raised panel along the beam. The smaller wrenches were not with the set when I bought them 8 or 9 years ago, my first eBay purchase. They would have been in a smaller pouch attached to the snaps in the upper left corner of the larger pouch (see pic).
The 3/8ths Barcalo in my pic has a bad open end, and the box end is the traditional style, with the entire box end at 15 degrees to the wrench beam.The other set of Barcalo's have the same box end, but a different open end with a chrome raised panel along the beam. The smaller wrenches were not with the set when I bought them 8 or 9 years ago, my first eBay purchase. They would have been in a smaller pouch attached to the snaps in the upper left corner of the larger pouch (see pic).