Unusual Williams DOE Wrench

[PacificaVette]

I bought this Williams DOE wrench at a flea market several weeks ago. It's pretty big, and I don't think I'd ever have a use for a wrench of this size, but for $2, why not buy it? It can always be garage art. It was a bit rusty, and appeared to have several coats of paint on it. Yesterday, I finally got around to cleaning it up by soaking in Simple Green followed by Evaporust. The paint was rather tenacious, but some stripper took care of that.

The unusual thing about this wrench is that it is mis-sized The engravings on the wrench say "1" and '1 1/8", but as you see from the pics, it is clearly larger. I measured the wrench and it is actually 1 5/8" and 1 3/4". Has anyone come across anything like this before?

 

[1320]

Maybe an ironworker wrench, marked 1" for a 1" bolt, which uses a 1-5/8" hex.

 

[Jacobs976]

I actually have a few of these from the last lot I bought. I'll check mine when I get a chance. Pretty sure one had the same sizes(stamped).

 

[bcschief]

Maybe Whitworth

 

[1320]

Maybe an ironworker wrench, marked 1" for a 1" bolt, which uses a 1-5/8" hex.

And a 1-1/8" bolt is 1-13/16". I'll bet its an ironworker/construction wrench.

 

[four.cycle]

1916 H. Channon Co. catalog pp 173 Williams wrench

 

[4xdog]

...The paint was rather tenacious, but some stripper took care of that...

A lot of wrenches from that period (from my less than expert knowledge, although it does include some original family wrenches from that period) were japanned black. That multi-layer baked-on resinous finish was used for corrosion protection back in the day, as far as I know.

I'll bet the finish you took off was largely original.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

Very common practice for several decades, sometimes along with the standard abbreviation (i.e., "U.S.S.", Hex Cap, S.A.E., etc). Not until the late 1930's did the industry start standardizing on milled opening sizes.

 

[Jacobs976]

Very common practice for several decades, sometimes along with the standard abbreviation (i.e., "U.S.S.", Hex Cap, S.A.E., etc). Not until the late 1930's did the industry start standardizing on milled opening sizes.

Got a U.S.S one here, 5/8 and 3/4 hex. Also have a U.S.E.D. code (no numbers listed) but as far as I can tell it's just a self aware wrench.

 

[PacificaVette]

A lot of wrenches from that period (from my less than expert knowledge, although it does include some original family wrenches from that period) were japanned black. That multi-layer baked-on resinous finish was used for corrosion protection back in the day, as far as I know.

I'll bet the finish you took off was largely original.

No, the paint that came off (outermost layer) was brown, not at all like a japanned finish. The inner paint layer was silvery.