J H Williams vintage hand tools

[wtn1271]

Here are a few more pictures of the modified S-52 ratchet. The head looks to have been machined down and the selector is taller than some of the others I own.

 

[RTM]

Here is a desecrated Williams socket. Picked it up for cheap, wasn't sure what all was going , since it was kinda rusty. When it came out of the evapor rust bath the top end was all black. I thought maybe it had been turned down on a lathe, but instead I think they used
a grinding wheel, with the socket handheld.

At the peak of the cut down section it's over an eighth of an inch total lost. You can see it's narrower in the middle in a little wider at the top and bottom.

I don't know what they had to do with it but it must have been important.

 

[Provincial]

Not enough clearance around the bolt/nut head to fit the socket as supplied by the factory. Variations because of sloppy, hand-held grinding. Not uncommon in the wild. but most get discarded because of the modifications.

 

[four.cycle]

^ I've seen more than one or two mangled severely like that. Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.

 

[Oldtuleguy]

I've done to a few!

 

[four.cycle]

Haven't we all?

 

[Ricky Joe]

Maybe Cummins 855 main.

 

[Oldtuleguy]

I at least try to modify a foreign socket

 

[PSCo1867]

My humble offering today is a J H Williams B-409 3/8" drive 9/32" square socket. What the heck for? It's for the drain plug on a Dynaflow torque-converter, of course. It's part of a JHW automatic trans service set.

 

[Provincial]

9/32 is the standard square size for 1/8" NPT pipe plugs with external square drive. The other, larger, sizes use more common square drives sizes.

I bought a similar socket from Snap-On when I worked on aircraft engines and encountered square-head 1/8" pipe plugs in difficult-to-reach locations. It comes in handy more often that you would expect!

 

[PSCo1867]

9/32 is the standard square size for 1/8" NPT pipe plugs with external square drive. The other, larger, sizes use more common square drives sizes.

I bought a similar socket from Snap-On when I worked on aircraft engines and encountered square-head 1/8" pipe plugs in difficult-to-reach locations. It comes in handy more often that you would expect!

And I've screwed in/out 100s of those 1/8" NPT plugs without knowing. Thanks for the tip...

 

[RTM]

Here is another bit from the shop cleanout. A Williams T Socket, 3/4" opening. Apparently a Single Head Socket wrench in 1912 catalog 967D, with a 49/64 milled opening. The D is assumed, the 7 was pretty tenuous. This one looks like it was abused by a pipe wrench a time or three, which is a shame. But better than the socket in post 1402, but that was a different locale. W in the diamond is the only brand marking.

 

[PSCo1867]

Here is another bit from the shop cleanout. A Williams T Socket, 3/4" opening. Apparently a 967D, with a 49/64 milled opening. The D is assumed, the 7 was pretty tenuous. This one looks like it was abused by a pipe wrench a time or three, which is a shame. But better than the socket in post 1402, but that was a different locale. W in the diamond is the only marking.

I love these old T-handled socket wrenches, although I've never actually used one or seen one in use. I've worked in a steel mill mechanical department since the late 80s (recently retired), and we had scads of these things, which only collected dust & grime in the back of cabinets. I'd like to see a time-line of their popularity, but I'm guessing they peaked before the advent of individual sockets/ratchets/impacts/accessories. I'm sure they also had/have their place as machine-specific adjusters/tighteners for factory & mill machines, machine-shop equipment and the like. Again, I'll bet they were really popular before the onset of multi-piece socket systems & power. Perhaps they were popular (in the post socket-system era) in industries that I'm not familiar with?

They did, however, continue to soldier on in the J H Williams catalogs through the late 70s. A quick catalog search shows a 1981 JHW price list showing them as discontinued & "available until stock runs out". For official names for this wrench: the old-catalog link in RTM's post shows "Single Head Socket Wrench with or without Handle" and in later catalogs they were just called "Tee Handled Socket Wrenches".

Other wrenches that had similar trajectories were the "offset socket wrench" and the "single end box wrench", to name a couple, but that's another post.

 

[RTM]

For official names for this wrench: the old-catalog link in RTM's post shows "Single Head Socket Wrench with or without Handle" and in later catalogs they were just called "Tee Handled Socket Wrenches"

Thanks for reminding me to fix that. In the earlier catalog from 1901, they wore a different part number, 300 series.

Got tired, forgot to finish the clean up. I’d seen those elsewhere in a set of three on a wall, figured I could spare space for one to display.

 

[four.cycle]

I'm guessing they peaked before the advent of individual sockets/ratchets

Yes. Both Walden and Mossberg made available vast assortments of various "T-handles" and "L-handles", each of which was designed to perform a specific task on a specific vehicle, which got pretty nutty by about 1926, if you start looking at catalog pages.
The advent of Snap-on's and Blackhawk's "interchangeable socket systems" changed all that in the late 1920s.

As with all things in the universe, these have come full circle and are now quite popular in the motorcycle repair world, available from any number of various Asian manufacturers.

 

[PSCo1867]

Thanks for reminding me to fix that. In the earlier catalog from 1901, they wore a different part number, 300 series.

Got tired, forgot to finish the clean up. I’d seen those elsewhere in a set of three on a wall, figured I could spare space for one to display.

I never knew there was a 300 series. Not sure exactly when they changed over to 9XX series, but the 1912 catalog shows the 9XX type. No doubt spotting a 3XX one will mean you've got a REAL old one. Now I'll have to check out my stash and start posting some of these.

 

[PSCo1867]

Here are two examples of the 978A T-handle socket wrench, size 2" . There are slight differences between them, suggesting that they were produced in different eras. The one on the right is about 3/8" shorter, has a flatter head (at the T end), and has a 2 stamped to the right of the part number. Page is from 1978's cat no. 309, which is, I believe, the final catalog appearance for T-handle wrenches. They appear to be NOS.

 

[PSCo1867]

This is an old one, and pre-dates the JHW 1912 cat, but appears in the JHW 1901 cat. It's a "Straight Concave Handled Wrench", double-ended. As shown in the JHW 1901, 10th ed. catalog, it's one of the no. 182 to 188 wrenches. Too bad one end is pretty molested.

Full disclosure: I'm assuming that this is a JHW wrench, but it's lacking any # or ID, which probably went away when the one end was "repaired".

 

[3baygarage]

That's got to be rare. Not sure I've ever seen one

 

[PSCo1867]

That's got to be rare. Not sure I've ever seen one

I've had it for years, but only recently identified it. This is only because I stumbled onto it in an old JHW cat that I didn't even realize was in the ITCL. For you ******** JHW nuts, be sure to keep checking on the ITCL, as there are continual new catalog additions (this goes for all other tool brands too, of course). Again, thanks to @Mark Stansbury and all GJ members who keep feeding him old catalogs to scan.

At this point, The oldest JHW catalog in the ITCL is the 1901 10th edition, and the latest is the 1979 WS-79.

 

[3baygarage]

Looking through early catalogs (not necessarily Williams), I've seen things I didn't even know existed. It is a joy to look through and a fabulous resource.

 

[wrenchguy]

This is an old one, and pre-dates the JHW 1912 cat, but appears in the JHW 1901 cat. It's a "Straight Concave Handled Wrench", double-ended. As shown in the JHW 1901, 10th ed. catalog, it's one of the no. 182 to 188 wrenches. Too bad one end is pretty molested.

Full disclosure: I'm assuming that this is a JHW wrench, but it's lacking any # or ID, which probably went away when the one end was "repaired".

from "the mill"?

 

[leg17]

Never seen one before. Thanks.

 

[Provincial]

Sunday I found a Williams L-wrench. It has a 5/16 square broach, and is marked "SPECIAL" with a diamond-W.

 

[3baygarage]

Man that's cool. Very unusual with the knurl. A lot of square wrenches came in t handle form.

 

[PSCo1867]

This is an old one, and pre-dates the JHW 1912 cat, but appears in the JHW 1901 cat. It's a "Straight Concave Handled Wrench", double-ended. As shown in the JHW 1901, 10th ed. catalog, it's one of the no. 182 to 188 wrenches. Too bad one end is pretty molested.

Full disclosure: I'm assuming that this is a JHW wrench, but it's lacking any # or ID, which probably went away when the one end was "repaired".

So, it turns out that I also have the wrench that superseded the straight concave handle wrench. I present to you the JHW straight flat handle wrench #186. This one appears in the JHW 1912 catalog where, for some reason, they changed this wrench series from concave to flat. I'm surprised that the "186" stamping was so amateurish.

 

[wrenchguy]

So, it turns out that I also have the wrench that superseded the straight concave handle wrench. I present to you the JHW straight flat handle wrench #186. This one appears in the JHW 1912 catalog where, for some reason, they changed this wrench series from concave to flat. I'm surprised that the "186" stamping was so amateurish. The old rail section template was just to spice up the photo a bit

unfinished=bare minimum? no ups no extra.

 

[PSCo1867]

unfinished=bare minimum? no ups no extra.

Good point. Right about getting nothing fancy with "Unfinished".

 

[PSCo1867]

Sunday I found a Williams L-wrench. It has a 5/16 square broach, and is marked "SPECIAL" with a diamond-W.

It's hard to pass up a special, and that one's a beaut. Here's another offset socket wrench which was "specialized" similar to yours: for more leverage. It's a 269H and it had two factory upgrades. First, its handle was lengthened by 6", and second, the stock 3/4" square opening was changed to 8 pt.

 

[thehorse13]

An old timer who lived in my neighborhood passed on, and as usual, the kids show up to close up shop. All week long the curb was stocked each day with a fresh batch of free stuff. On the last day they cleaned out the garage and left this toolbox full of Williams (and one Armstrong) spud wrenches on the curb.

 

[d42jeep]

I found an unusual (for me) 12” Williams locking adjustable wrench at an estate sale yesterday.
-Don

 

[Steven 33]

Never having seen one before, have to wonder if it's factory or not. Most modified tools will have a special stamp, but when it comes to ratchets, pretty sure I've only seen one that was stamped!

Make that 2

 

[3baygarage]

Nice one. Hammer and pry bar?

 

[Steven 33]

Nice one. Hammer and pry bar?

It does look that way here's a copper coated one but no special marking

 

[Stubby1743]

I have this Williams DOE. With the logo and being not plated, I'm assuming that it is WW2 vintage.

I also assume that the W in front of the 29 signifies Whitworth sizing. Unfortunately, some PO has widened the smaller end.

 

[d42jeep]

I believe that you are correct. It’s probably a carbon steel wrench made for the war effort as I haven’t run across any Whitworth Williams wrenches in the US.
-Don

 

[d42jeep]

Here are a couple of recent Williams finds. The DOE Superrench 1025 is likely wartime and has a bit of the optional grey paint remaining.
I don’t know much about the DBE wrench.
-Don

 

[Oldtuleguy]

Some old curvy wrenches

 

[d42jeep]

Little thin nose Williams longnoses found at a recent local sale.
-Don

 

[Private Lugnutz]

Some old curvy wrenches

Nice partial matching set!