Pipe wrenches

[adonachie61]

I recently acquired some pipe wrenches, "vintage"
The one i can read is a Walco 44 B 18
Id like to know anything about it. Year, where it was made? Sources i can search. Thank you for your time.

 

[GeoBruin]

I recently acquired some pipe wrenches, "vintage"
The one i can read is a Walco 44 B 18
Id like to know anything about it. Year, where it was made? Sources i can search. Thank you for your time.

Welcome to the forum!

Pictures will go a long way toward getting input from the crown here.

 

[lardy1]

Lots of useful information and great people in the vintage forums. Sometimes takes a little digging but they even have an index of sorts.

 

[neophyte]

Walco stands for Walworth Manufacturing Company.
The company was founded in 1855.
Their major claim to fame, was that Walworth was the original manufacturer of the Stillson Pipe wrench, which was patented in 1869.
The Stillson pipe wrench design is still manufactured, but was basically superseded as the “standard” pipe wrench design by the William O. Thewes and Ridgid (Ridge Tool Company) wrench patents and designs on 1925 and 1928, that have since become the defacto standard pipe wrench design.

If the Walco wrench you have sort of looks like a Ridgid pipe wrench, with the jaw mounted into a single piece handle with nut, it may be a design Walworth came up with after the Thewes/Ridgid patents, that worked slightly differently, but with the same sort of idea to the Thewes/Ridgid design.
It’s been a while since I looked thru the patents, so I’m not sure specifics.

Walworth Manufacturing Company

An article on the history of the Walworth Manufacturing Company.

alloy-artifacts.org

 

[four.cycle]

@adonachie61 -

keep this link handy

and this one

the pipe wrench thread

more information can be found at any of these links:

Walworth / Walworth Mfg. Co., 998 First St., Boston, MA / patent 95744 Oct 12 1869 Daniel C. Stillson & 262263 Aug 8 1882 Caleb C. Walworth & 1711083 Apr 30 1929 & 1862002 Jun 7 1932 Alphonse O. Brungardt / http://alloy-artifacts.org/walworth-mfg-company.html / https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/threads/daniel-chapman-stillson-and-the-walworth-mfg-co.335857/ / https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/threads/walworth-stillson-wrenches.303400/ /

 

[Hakeem]

Not even 12 hours after asking his question and two members have already provided thorough responses. Incredible.

Posters like @neophyte and @four.cycle make this community the best one on the internet.