King **** Adjustable wrenches, anyone actually use theirs?

[TheOriginalJudgie]

G'day folks,

Among the collection of new and old in the garage, I have these two King **** Wrenches.... well one is the real deal, very well restored, the other is a knock-off from god knows what period in the last century, but also came up well in the electrolysis bucket. These are among the few tools that I have bought not to use, but rather because I like the design. I was advised by the seller of the knock-off (he had some genuine ones as well in extremely poor condition) that this style was quite common with early-mid 1900's English cars, apparently.

Is there anyone here that owns one or many of these and actually uses them? maybe even on an old English car? not sure how good they'd be with modern hex-head nuts and bolts.

 

[30 Buford]

Yes I have one inside my tool drawer under the Dashboard of my 1954 Rover P4 90 Saloon Car . An antique 4 door British passenger car I have. I wouldn’t use it but it a cool item .


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[Private Lugnutz]

Those came out very nice, Judgie.

I have a few. The King ****, from GJ member Mintgrun, is from my 1943 B.S.A. WDM20 toolkit. But I don't use it. The others are also just collectibles. The Billings & Spencer came first, by the way. Intended for bicycles. It was patented here in the US (212,298) in 1879. According to Ron Geesin (in his famous book, "The Adjustable Spanner"), the King **** adjustable spanner "first appeared in the early 1880s and was a very close copy of Charles E. Billing's patent of 1879. The King **** logo was registered in 1881."

 

[Dave455]

I’ve got a few. They actually work quite well, being a lot more rigid than some more modern designs.

They work well on some plumbing applications too, especially if you want to use a wrench from the side.

I occasionally carry a small one with me, especially if I’m expecting to work on something like air fittings that might be standard, but might not.

The shape and size of the small ones fits the pocket. The pic below was a “pocket dump” when I realised my work jacket had started putting on weight.

The downside of these tools is that they are relatively heavy for what they do. A pliers wrench is something I’m tending to use more these days, but for some applications a solid small adjustable is still supreme.

 

[30 Buford]

I just pulled the Tool tray from my 54 Rover here a Couple ;







Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[isb cornbinder]

I often entertain myself with my King **** tools I have to say, this does not happen as often as I used to.
I try to never use the word "actually"

 

[30 Buford]

Funny play on words ? Nice little collection . I need to keep an eye out for more of them , as many odd ball things I have The King **** wrenches are really unique. The only ones I have are kept in my Old Rover tool kit . ( my other moniker I went with on other forums). B.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[Private Lugnutz]

I just pulled the Tool tray from my 54 Rover here a Couple

So that's where the pliers all the way on the right in my little British made collection belong!

I do also have a lovely set of King-**** double offset double box end wrenches that go from 16 to 32mm.

 

[Jim C.]

This is the original King **** adjustable wrench that was included with my 1955 MG factory supplied tool kit. While it’s a functional tool, and would probably work in a pinch, it’s not the first wrench I’d want if I had other choices. To date, I’ve never used it.

Jim C.

 

[TheOriginalJudgie]

Thanks for your responses! its good to see that there are a bunch of these around, and many in the genuine factory toolkits as well! several of you seem to have some very nice vintage cars as well, particularly the Rover P4, which I immediately searched for on Wikipedia. Being a fan of the inline 6 configuration in both old and modern cars (I've got a 4 liter "Barra" in my Falcon) I was surprised to read about the Rover "IOE" inline 6 and the strange combination of Overhead Intake valves, with Side-valve style exhaust valves.... how very British.

I would like to say that I meant the thread title as a bit of a joke, but in all honesty it never crossed my mind.....

 

[Farmer J.]

I missed this thread first time around, so will put in a belated reply..
I have a couple of those KD adjustables, standard size and also a larger one which i bought NOS in a sale years ago because it was scrap value and quite unusual. I last used one in the 1970's! It was in a Land Rover tool kit. It was a horrible wrench to use, very little leverage, very bulky, soft metal jaws, difficult to turn the adjuster and i skinned my knuckles so always hated using them ever since.
Had one of those 6cyl engines in a Land Rover years ago, they didn't last long in production before they went on to the stage 1 V8. Lots of torque, great for towing, awful head gasket trouble.
One of my sons has a big 'Barra' like yours in a Falcon, like yours, that's great!

 

[humber2]

Soft jaws are the Achilles heel of these tools. It is easy to find a used example, the jaws no longer align. If left exposed to rain they will be stuck tight too.

There are so few locations where the bulk of these can be swung without skinning knuckles and/ or emitting vulgar words.

Despite this I have a large collection of these kept well away from where they could possibly be used.

4" and 6" are the common sizes, 3" and 8" harder to find.


Whilst the frame geometry has stayed the same over time there are many different versions of knurling to the thumb wheel which must be a dating or customer clue.

Lots of versions, many made by KD but not so marked, Shelley comes to mind.

Pennant made their version with sheet metal stampings stacked and riveted.

Several German options and the US options seem to have occurred with the pre 1900 bicycle trades demand.

 

[woody 73]

Funny in a way how this post came up...

I just did a very recent post on that king **** wrench , but alas it did not get very much feedback; but I thought some of you might enjoy the following story that i posted in the general tool section.

https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=468695

 

[Private Lugnutz]

I had a funny few minutes when buying this wee Abingdon King **** DOE wrench from a woman and her daughter at the flea market this morning, who seemed intent on stretching every salacious inch out of the double entendre of the name and their tongue-in-cheek impression of my purpose for buying it! I tried to keep the exchange on the up-and-up, explaining to them the "W" (Whitworth) and the "BA" (British Association) size markings, but they just kept dragging it into the dirt, so I joked right back.

 

[Dave455]

I had a funny few minutes when buying this wee Abingdon King **** DOE wrench from a woman and her daughter at the flea market this morning, who seemed intent on stretching every salacious inch out of the double entendre of the name and their tongue-in-cheek impression of my purpose for buying it! I tried to keep the exchange on the up-and-up, explaining to them the "W" (Whitworth) and the "BA" (British Association) size markings, but they just kept dragging it into the dirt, so I joked right back.

Could have been worse, you might have found one of these…

 

[Private Lugnutz]

Immeasurably more phallic!

 

[Meursault74]

I always wondered what tool the guy from King Missile would use for his "Detachable *****" Now I know.

music video is safe to watch, I assure you.

 

[NateHiggins]

I've only ever come across one King **** wrench, and honestly its beautifully made. Very tight tolerances considering its age what it is. I also have a few Billings & Spencer wrenches of similar size. Honestly, between the two, I'd probably use the latter, if I had to use a wrench like these, only because with the tight tolerances comes a stiffness that I cant seem to figure out how to get rid of without likely damaging the thing. The B&S wrenches have a bit more wiggle, but they're a lot faster to use.