For a long time I'd been searching for the perfect open wrench and a few months ago that search was over. Since this is my own preference I'm sure your ideal open wrench may differ from mine, so I'll describe my findings to give a better picture...
I absolutely love plomb pebbled handles, specifically their 1/2" drive ratchets. If you haven't used them they are square like Mac wrenches, but with a bit more of a smooth radius and decent weight. Finding that was the goal in the beam of my ideal wrench. I find that snap on beams are a bit too thin & sharp (good for tight access though). Modern proto stuff can lean that way, but most are just about right for me with enough radius to be comfortable and good weight without being trucks like the old cast wrenches of yesteryear.
That being said I can't stand the open end on proto wrenches (the boxed end is amazing however). The anti-slip design ones aren't too bad, but I feel like in general most of the modern wrenches of this type like knuckle-savers, wright grips, flank drives, etc have added play before driving a fastener making the swing angle a bit wider. Older wright wrenches have an interesting design I noticed. They are shaped like a v which grabs a bolt head better than anything I'd found up to that point without being an anti-slip type.
All that in mind I was lucky to stumble on a good deal on a set of new Cornwell combo wrenches. Never having used them I figured that's the perfect thing to buy blindly over the internet because I love making stupid rash decisions on tools I've never used hoping they'll be awesome! They have every detail I had mentioned as my preference so I suppose it wasn't all blind. I will say though, best purchase I could've made. Just to see if they would slip I decided to crack 30 year old exhaust flange bolts off of my project Z and to my knuckles' delight I was slip free! They have a heavy, weighty feel to them though they are more slender in the right places, so they'll also reach tighter spots than anything in my toolbox. Plus I torture tested them with a 4lb cross peen and I'm pretty sure they're also indestructible for most applications. Totally not a fan of any of their other stuff besides the impact sockets, but these blow my other combos straight back to hell.
Enough rambling, new Cornwell combo wrenches are my new favorite and China still doesn't know how to make great tools that I like. America still lives on as "better than your country at making great tools to fix your crappy stuff"
I absolutely love plomb pebbled handles, specifically their 1/2" drive ratchets. If you haven't used them they are square like Mac wrenches, but with a bit more of a smooth radius and decent weight. Finding that was the goal in the beam of my ideal wrench. I find that snap on beams are a bit too thin & sharp (good for tight access though). Modern proto stuff can lean that way, but most are just about right for me with enough radius to be comfortable and good weight without being trucks like the old cast wrenches of yesteryear.
That being said I can't stand the open end on proto wrenches (the boxed end is amazing however). The anti-slip design ones aren't too bad, but I feel like in general most of the modern wrenches of this type like knuckle-savers, wright grips, flank drives, etc have added play before driving a fastener making the swing angle a bit wider. Older wright wrenches have an interesting design I noticed. They are shaped like a v which grabs a bolt head better than anything I'd found up to that point without being an anti-slip type.
All that in mind I was lucky to stumble on a good deal on a set of new Cornwell combo wrenches. Never having used them I figured that's the perfect thing to buy blindly over the internet because I love making stupid rash decisions on tools I've never used hoping they'll be awesome! They have every detail I had mentioned as my preference so I suppose it wasn't all blind. I will say though, best purchase I could've made. Just to see if they would slip I decided to crack 30 year old exhaust flange bolts off of my project Z and to my knuckles' delight I was slip free! They have a heavy, weighty feel to them though they are more slender in the right places, so they'll also reach tighter spots than anything in my toolbox. Plus I torture tested them with a 4lb cross peen and I'm pretty sure they're also indestructible for most applications. Totally not a fan of any of their other stuff besides the impact sockets, but these blow my other combos straight back to hell.
Enough rambling, new Cornwell combo wrenches are my new favorite and China still doesn't know how to make great tools that I like. America still lives on as "better than your country at making great tools to fix your crappy stuff"
