Some Vintage Pipe Wrenches, anyone collect them?

[d42jeep]

Looks like it to me. Nice wrench.
-Don

 

[may0naise]

Whats crazy about that catalog is that a 24" wrench cost $9.50 in 1942. That's well over $150 in today's dollars.

 

[AreBeeBee]

Here's a Walco 10-inch from 1936, picked up at a local ReStore and thoroughly cleaned of rust, grime, and spattered paint. (There are a few surviving flecks of Walworth red in the handle recesses.)

It's the first Walco I've ever handled, and it provokes a question that I'll guess others here can confirm or not. The adjustable jaw is quite loose, as is the lower hardened steel jaw. The lower jaw is probably loose due to strain and wear, but the adjustable jaw may be lacking a spring.

Can someone tell me what if any springs these wrenches had when they left the factory?

Edit: Well, I just looked up the patent on this (#1,862,002; June 7, 1932) and it appears there was indeed a thin leaf spring inside the frame which held the knurled ring in place, and allowed it to tilt with the adjustable jaw to grip a pipe or other object. So the loose lower jaw probably makes things worse for gripping, but I'll give it a try anyway!

 

[mvcorse]

Stillson's influence extends far beyond the US.

 

[d42jeep]

Here's a Walco 10-inch from 1936, picked up at a local ReStore and thoroughly cleaned of rust, grime, and spattered paint. (There are a few surviving flecks of Walworth red in the handle recesses.)

It's the first Walco I've ever handled, and it provokes a question that I'll guess others here can confirm or not. The adjustable jaw is quite loose, as is the lower hardened steel jaw. The lower jaw is probably loose due to strain and wear, but the adjustable jaw may be lacking a spring.

Can someone tell me what if any springs these wrenches had when they left the factory?

Edit: Well, I just looked up the patent on this (#1,862,002; June 7, 1932) and it appears there was indeed a thin leaf spring inside the frame which held the knurled ring in place, and allowed it to tilt with the adjustable jaw to grip a pipe or other object. So the loose lower jaw probably makes things worse for gripping, but I'll give it a try anyway!

The spring clips are often missing. Their absence makes the jaw a bit more floppy but they are generally still functional. I’ve had a couple of NOS examples and both came with original black paint. The red paint may have been added by a previous owner.
-Don

 

[HeelSpur]

Cochran pipe wrenches from an auction a few weeks back.

DSCF4051 (2) by wvwheaties, on Flickr
DSCF4055 (2) by wvwheaties, on Flickr
DSCF4054 (2) by wvwheaties, on Flickr
DSCF4052 (2) by wvwheaties, on Flickr

 

[Private Lugnutz]

Cochran pipe wrenches from an auction a few weeks back.

No more fitting tool on this entire site than a Cochran pipe wrench or Cochran SPEEDNUT wrench, given our proprietor's ancestry! And you don't have to post its patent diagram, because it's somewhere on that yellowing wallpaper Ryan has placed behind the forum window.

 

[AreBeeBee]

The spring clips are often missing. Their absence makes the jaw a bit more floppy but they are generally still functional. I’ve had a couple of NOS examples and both came with original black paint. The red paint may have been added by a previous owner.
-Don

d42jeep — Oh, to go back and buy a handful of those springs at 25 to 50 cents a pop... But even if I had a time machine, the store wouldn't accept my silver-less coins or my "Federal Reserve Notes," whatever the denomination. Rats.

But I did try the wrench on a locking nut at the pivot of a large pair of anvil-type loppers — and as you note, it worked, despite a fair amount of slop due to the missing spring and the loose lower jaw. Now clearly, if it's a serious job — water spilling across the floor, say — I'll pick one of the other pipe wrenches in the stable. But it's nice to have this one, flawed or not.

By the way, after the wrench came out of the Evapo and had been wire brushed to clean off the black residue from the bath, I wondered if it had been given a black oxide coating at the factory. If so, it's gone for good now, and at my hands, too. But that's something to watch for in the future.

And that's a fine collection of those things you have. I'll keep an eye out for the smaller sizes, which I'm partial to, whether of the Stillson pattern or the Walco-RIDGID-etc one. Say, I notice the 8-inch in the photo has a bit of a tilt? bend? in the jaw housing, which the others lack. Designed in? Or just wear and tear?

 

[d42jeep]

The 8” example is probably just missing the spring which accounts for the jaw leaning back in the handle but who knows how much abuse it suffered over the years? Someday I would like to run across one of the rubber handles shown it the catalog. Whatever black paint they used at the factory certainly didn’t stand the test of time.
-Don

 

[Doublebarrel]

Here are a few of my wrenches still have not cleaned them up yet.

 

[Doublebarrel]

Can't seem to attach my picture sorry.

 

[Doublebarrel]

Here are a few of my wrenches still have not cleaned them up yet.

 

[Tostal]

Here's a few of my pipe wrenches (or Stillson's as we refer to them over here).



1st is a Rigid 12 inch,
2nd is a Rigid 6 inch,
3rd is an unusual one, made in Poland and I've heard this type referred to as an adjustable Gas wrench.

~Tostal.

 

[Fred Knox]

A couple recent additions to my pipe wrench collection:
Bemis & Call, 12”
J. L. Taylor Pipe & Nut Wrench (manufactured by C. H. Redmon & Co. Newark, NJ), 12”

 

[HeelSpur]

Lownes Pipe Wrench

US Patent: 446,220 - Wrench

US patent 446,220 Wrench was issued to Phineas William Lownes of Orlando, FL. It was granted on 02/10/1891. The patent is for the frame which allows an adjustable jaw to be shifted to emerge from the end or side of the frame, the related holder for the adjus

www.datamp.org

DSCF4081 (2) by wvwheaties, on Flickr
DSCF4084 (2) by wvwheaties, on Flickr
DSCF4083 (2) by wvwheaties, on Flickr
DSCF4082 (2) by wvwheaties, on Flickr

 

[HeelSpur]

Toyang J1010 Jaws- no info.

DSCF4078 (2) by wvwheaties, on Flickr
DSCF4079 (2) by wvwheaties, on Flickr

 

[Private Lugnutz]

Lownes Pipe Wrench

That's nifty. I like the way the pronounced heads of the pins holding the housing together help "disguise" or aesthetically "blend in" the pivot-pin to disengage the mechanism for swiveling it the other way.

 

[Jim C.]

I was at my parents house a week ago helping them downsize. I went through the garage with my dad and came home with a lot of old tools to include several pipe wrenches. I’m not really a pipe wrench collector, but this old Walworth caught my eye because it has a wooden handle. My dad believed it belonged to my grandfather but he wasn’t exactly sure. Anyway, I’ll clean it up and see what it looks like.

Jim C.

 

[AreBeeBee]

And here's a couple of mine. An 8-inch Cochran and an 11-inch Bemis & Call combo of monkey (nut) wrench and pipe wrench.

The Cochran has a clever cage for the adjustment nut. I'd never seen this design before finding this example. It's clever, yes, but that feature must have added to manufacturing costs and assembly time. Which may explain why there aren't more of these things out and about.

The Bemis & Call had the usual scarred & scuffed black paint plus grime on the wood handle, so I didn't hesitate to sand, stain, and shellac. These wrenches have a spring on the opposite of the head to give the pipe jaw a very small bit of flex, while keeping the nut side jaws tight. Supposedly these were one-hand-adjustable, but the inclusion of a hex-sided part on the adjusting nut makes it clear that at least on occasion, they figured you'd need to put some real oomph into tightening the jaws.

The teeth on the B&C are slightly rounded with wear, and I doubt I can get a replacement insert....! Still, if I have a job that calls for this size of pipe wrench, I'll give it a go.

 

[AreBeeBee]

I was at my parents house a week ago helping them downsize. I went through the garage with my dad and came home with a lot of old tools to include several pipe wrenches. I’m not really a pipe wrench collector, but this old Walworth caught my eye because it has a wooden handle. My dad believed it belonged to my grandfather but he wasn’t exactly sure. Anyway, I’ll clean it up and see what it looks like.

Jim C.

Good find! And good luck cleaning it up. If you're careful you can usually unscrew the tail nut and slide off the wood handle without damage. It may take a little twisting to loosen the wood from the sleeve at the upper end. Easy does it.

The wrench appears in pretty nice shape apart from rust — how big is it?

Edited to add — getting a tool that has been part of the family for generations is a special treat. I have a passed-down bit brace that was made about the time my mother's father was born, but he picked it up second-hand and used it when he was working in boatyards north of Boston after WW I. I wouldn't part with it for anything.

 

[Jim C.]

It cleaned up pretty well.

Jim C.

 

[d42jeep]

They are cute. Here are a couple of mine. I think one came with our cabin.
-Don

 

[RAS61]

I love old tools, but like them better when they don't just take up space and can still be put to use. How do vintage pipe wrenches function compared to new ones - better, worse, the same? Could use a couple for my old house with a lot of old pipes

 

[d42jeep]

When it comes to user pipe wrenches, I’m partial to Ridgid. I believe that the prewar and wartime Ridgid wrenches operate just as well as the postwar wrenches which are pretty much a very similar design. As I get older, however, I am more and more likely to use one of the more modern aluminum wrenches just because they are so much lighter.
-Don

 

[HeelSpur]

My first Trimont "Moroco" pipe wrench. 8". Now I need to find a "Sando" to go with it. These are late 20's.

DSCF4103 (2) by wvwheaties, on Flickr
DSCF4104 by wvwheaties, on Flickr

 

[HeelSpur]

No.1 Parmelee;

DSCF3911 (2) by wvwheaties, on Flickr

 

[Stevettt]

Found this interesting GTD Little Giant pipe wrench a couple weeks ago at the flea market. Same GTD as the maker of taps and dies, right here in MA. Weird 4 way design.

Neat find and an unusual design. I've seen quite a few right angle wrenches but never the 4-way, which is intriguing.
I wonder in what situation one would want the opening of the jaw pointed back toward the handle (i.e., the user?
At first I thought clearance, but the unused "front" fixed jaws still project out and jaw opening would be the same either way.
Perhaps it's some combo of access plus the desire to push rather than pull (or vice-versa).
Oddly, the fixed jaw on the lower right seems the most worn. Not sure if that's a function of using it with jaws reversed or if it just got banged around from being exposed.
Having duplicate sets of fixed jaws doesn't help a lot either, just need to flip the wrench over to get the same effect.
I suppose it does give a spare set if one gets worn.
Nonetheless it is very cool. I'd display it with the jaw opening reversed just for the novelty.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

No.1 Parmalee;

I have the same wrench, Heels - (it's Parmelee, though, if you don't want to foil future searches), found last August at a flea, but only with the 3/4" jaws, unfortunately. It's an ingenious design that Walworth, which bought the eponymous Chicago inventor and company out in 1913, marketed quite rightly as being modeled on the human hand!





See posts #47 and #48 on page 2 of this thread for more, where I also posted the patent drawing and more period ads, including this one, showing jaws just a tad bigger...

 

[four.cycle]

duplicate

 

[Stevettt]

This thread has been a lot of fun for me. I worked 35+ years in an oil refinery where pipe wrench and Ridgid were synonymous. I've also seen the basic Stillson pattern wrenches but had no clue that so many variants of the pipe wrench existed. Live and learn, thanks to all for sharing.

 

[Mintgrun]

Here is an old Irland pipe wrench I found last week. It has a spring loaded trigger to open the jaw. Apparently, they made a variety of trigger mechanisms for them. The one in the patent drawing is a little different.







Tom

 

[four.cycle]

Mintgrun, I cannot make out patent number or date from those photo images. Can you tell me the patent number and date stamped on that Irland unit please? BK

 

[Mintgrun]

Sorry for omitting that information. It has two dates, but no patent numbers. The first date is Sept. 22, 1903 and the second is Oct. 3, 1905.

Here's the image from the second patent date.



Here is another example with a different trigger.



Here are a couple more shots of mine.





Tom

 

[four.cycle]

Thank you. No apology necessary. I just try to include as much patent information in the list as possible so there is a point of reference.
It appears that your Irland is something of a rarity, about which scant information is available. (I don't even have a folder for it currently.)

Irland / Irland Pipe Wrench Co., 15 Court St., Boston, MA / pipe wrench / patent 732858 Jul 7 1903 David H. Irland & 739316 Sep 22 1903 David H. Irland & 800850 Oct 3 1905 David H. Irland and Frances A. Irland & 868126 Oct 15 1907 Joseph E. Richards and Charles W. Walker & 868127 Oct 15 1907 Joseph E. Richards / http://alloy-artifacts.org/other-makers-p2.html#irland / https://www.garagejournal.com/forum...nyone-collect-them.313417/page-3#post-9787988 /

 

[HeelSpur]

14" Ever-Grip.

DSCF4159 (2) by wvwheaties, on Flickr
DSCF4158 by wvwheaties, on Flickr

Ever_Grip_Wrench_19231117 by Stan Schulz, on Flickr

 

[four.cycle]

Quite the find there, HeelSpur.

does yours have the patent date or number on it, or is it marked "pat pend"?

The datamp.org page for that now offers a tip for using the new USPTO format (lower right - just below the picture)

(* updated LIST being uploaded now - will include this "Ever-Grip" - be back next week. BK*)

 

[HeelSpur]

Quite the find there, HeelSpur.

does yours have the patent date or number on it, or is it marked "pat pend"?

The datamp.org page for that now offers a tip for using the new USPTO format (lower right - just below the picture)

(* updated LIST being uploaded now - will include this "Ever-Grip" - be back next week. BK*) PATENTS PENDING.

 

[HeelSpur]

PATENTS PENDING

 

[HeelSpur]

Crescent Forging Co., got this sweet baby in todays mail.

DSCF4200 by wvwheaties, on Flickr
DSCF4199 by wvwheaties, on Flickr
DSCF4197 (2) by wvwheaties, on Flickr

 

[HeelSpur]