TOTO
Well-known member
Picked up this 6" at a local estate sale.
Vintage RIDGID Pipe Wrenches
- Thread starter Private Lugnutz
- Start date
OP
Private Lugnutz
Well-known member
Nice, clean example. Almost certainly made in Nov 1944, when FDR was elected to an unprecedented 4th term and US, British, and Canadian forces were kicking Nazi ***, taking names and bridges or constructing them across France, Belgium, and the Netherlands.
The codes seem to switch Letter-Month-Year and Letter-Year-Month (I have an E-12-4, for example), which is a little unnerving, but the features are ALL consistent with wartime.
The codes seem to switch Letter-Month-Year and Letter-Year-Month (I have an E-12-4, for example), which is a little unnerving, but the features are ALL consistent with wartime.
ALLFAST
Well-known member
Hello Lugz,
When I arrive home on the 24th I’ll post up some photos of my very nice offset pipe wrench. I bought it from an solid WWII collector in NJ about two years ago.
He said it was used by the father of a friend of his, who was a motor pool mechanic that somehow was able to remain stateside during WWII. The wrench is beautiful, and I would call it black oxide. It looks too thin for japanning ( or paint) to me, yet the finish is extremely consistent. It looks like it was never used. No decals however.
I was admiring it at home last week before leaving for work…should have taken some pictures but didn’t think I’d be here !
I googled the identifiers before I left, and all indications were that it’s a wartime Rigid/Ridge.
Until then, stay safe.
Shawn
When I arrive home on the 24th I’ll post up some photos of my very nice offset pipe wrench. I bought it from an solid WWII collector in NJ about two years ago.
He said it was used by the father of a friend of his, who was a motor pool mechanic that somehow was able to remain stateside during WWII. The wrench is beautiful, and I would call it black oxide. It looks too thin for japanning ( or paint) to me, yet the finish is extremely consistent. It looks like it was never used. No decals however.
I was admiring it at home last week before leaving for work…should have taken some pictures but didn’t think I’d be here !
I googled the identifiers before I left, and all indications were that it’s a wartime Rigid/Ridge.
Until then, stay safe.
Shawn
OP
Private Lugnutz
Well-known member
I look forward to seeing it.
jeffmoss26
Well-known member
ALLFAST
Well-known member
I’m looking forward to learning where it falls in the lineage!
ALLFAST
Well-known member
Merry Christmas Everyone!
As promised, here is my little friend!
I’m not sure of the finish being “black oxide” or bare steel? It’s very clean and extremely well made.
Stay safe,
Shawn
As promised, here is my little friend!
I’m not sure of the finish being “black oxide” or bare steel? It’s very clean and extremely well made.
Stay safe,
Shawn
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ALLFAST
Well-known member
d42jeep
Well-known member
Shawn,
Looks like 1944 to me.
-Don
Looks like 1944 to me.
-Don
ALLFAST
Well-known member
Merry Christmas Don !
Thanks for the scoop. I have your socket and will email you soon.
Be well,
Shawn
Thanks for the scoop. I have your socket and will email you soon.
Be well,
Shawn
OP
Private Lugnutz
Well-known member
You were correct. Wartime. And Don already read the date code. That is a black beauty. Hard to tell from here, but you may be right about very dark natural steel.
ALLFAST
Well-known member
Thanks Lugz…I appreciate it. I can see that these vintage pipe wrenches can be another slippery slope as they are cool!
Merry Christmas !
Merry Christmas !
d42jeep
Well-known member
ALLFAST
Well-known member
I knew of the Lend Lease for military rifles but not handtools! Thank You for sharing.
OP
Private Lugnutz
Well-known member
1944.
I have a book published in 1946 by the War Production Board, entitled Cumulative Listing of Major War Supply Contracts, that others have seen me cite as a reference here on GJ quite often. Your wrench prompted me to look at the Ridge Tool Company entry again. They had twenty-four (24) contracts, from July 1942 through May 1945, totaling $2.7M. All of them were with the Ordnance Dept, the Air Corps, or the Navy, except for one (1). Ridge had a contract (TPS41700L) for pipe wrenches worth $66,000 with the Treasury Department. Not many people realize that the Treasury Dept administered the Lend-Lease program. Guess when it was awarded? October 1943, which coincided with the Third Protocol period of the so-called "Lend-Lease" (To Promote the Defense of the US) Act. There is a very high probability that your pipe wrench was made in 1944 under that contract.
Getting Lend-Lease items to Russia was a feat in and of itself, if you're not familiar. The Nazi threat from the north to the British position in Iraq in midsummer 1941 was the sole reason for American “neutral” aid to Britain in the Middle East – and the British aid was being used as a ruse to also aid Russia, which had not yet been approved for Lend-Lease by Congress, via ports in the Persian Gulf. A railway connecting the Persian Gulf via Baghdad with the Mediterranean at Tripoli and the Bosporus at Istanbul was British controlled. Some of the best preserved Willys MB jeeps in the world are in Russia, and the "Persian Corridor" is how many of them got there. Or the Arctic route, past German-occupied Norway. But we sent enough material through Persia to Russia to field sixty US Army Divisions.
If you'll indulge me just a little longer, you may be interested in knowing that Russian Lend-Lease model Willys MB jeeps are the only wartime jeeps other than USMC models that got the full tool and repair parts package in a large OD wooden crate. All QMC, Ordnance Dept, and Lend-Lease British and Canadian jeeps got the much smaller tool and repair parts package. The USMC got the bigger crate because it would be more expeditionary, operating without the advantage of mechanics close behind in mobile 2nd echelon depots. The Russian Lend-Lease jeeps got the larger crate because those would need to be totally self-sufficient, operating on the Eastern Front, without US support. Long story short, a lot of jeep guys over here are jealous of the jeeps with crates that jeep guys in Russia are driving!
Thanks for posting.
Coolest thing I have seen in awhile.
OP
Private Lugnutz
Well-known member
Nice. Is it one of the double open end wrenches? Or the 11" adjustable Auto type wrench? Willys liked Fairmount for the hammer, too. We have a Fairmount thread if you'd like to post it there. If you click on the first thread at the top of this forum, called a Sticky, you will find an A-Z Index of threads inside. Scroll down to Fairmount and click on it. A few of us have a number of WWII Fairmount tools posted there.
OilyRascal
Well-known member
Thank you, Lugz and Don, for this very educating and useful thread.
OP
Private Lugnutz
Well-known member
Anything goes! Come one, come all!
I have one with December 1943 date code. See page 5, post #167.
OP
Private Lugnutz
Well-known member
Nice wrenches, ranger. They were both made after 1948, as you already suspected, but I'm afraid I can't help you much more than that.
Being able to identify wartime wrenches, and verifying the wartime codes on the dynamic jaws, was the point of the thread. Researching and documenting the early, prewar, and postwar features was essential to understanding the wartime features, but I never had much interest beyond that.
Maybe the codes work the same, with that last number being the year, but I don't know what you'd use to determine the decade.
Being able to identify wartime wrenches, and verifying the wartime codes on the dynamic jaws, was the point of the thread. Researching and documenting the early, prewar, and postwar features was essential to understanding the wartime features, but I never had much interest beyond that.
Maybe the codes work the same, with that last number being the year, but I don't know what you'd use to determine the decade.
thanks Lugz, how do the codes work? have you managed to work that out
OP
Private Lugnutz
Well-known member
Yes. The Letter-Number-Number (L-N-N-) codes on the dynamic jaws of wartime wrenches, which sometimes appear as L-NN and even LNN, are definitively Unknown-Month-Year.
While it seems perfectly logical and plausible that it's the same format for the LNN codes that appear on postwar wrenches, we have not pursued that in this thread, I have not looked at that myself, and I don't know of a way to distinguish production.
Was your offset pipe wrench with the B-1-1 code made in the 50's, 60's, or 70's, for example? Is the code January 1951, 1961 or 1971? I can't tell you, and this thread did not look at that.
While it seems perfectly logical and plausible that it's the same format for the LNN codes that appear on postwar wrenches, we have not pursued that in this thread, I have not looked at that myself, and I don't know of a way to distinguish production.
Was your offset pipe wrench with the B-1-1 code made in the 50's, 60's, or 70's, for example? Is the code January 1951, 1961 or 1971? I can't tell you, and this thread did not look at that.
Just read the Survey Closed announcement on page 1. Does this mean you're not interested in seeing further photos of Ridgid pipe wrenches...? Or is there a better thread to post them in?
In any case have four: a 14, a 10, and two 8s (one offset). The 14 (B-1-5) is late wartime (Jan 1945), the 10 (I4-7) something of a puzzle, perhaps April 1937. The two 8s are both postwar.
The 10 inch one has a name stamped into it: Helmuth Gierl. I bought this at a local Milwaukee consignment shop and a little googling found the probable owner, or rather his obituary:
https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/jsonline/name/helmuth-gierl-obituary?pid=103793212
https://www.ancientfaces.com/person/helmuth-gierl-birth-1920-united-states/157218576#biography
The second link (scroll down) shows him born around 1920 in Danzig, presumably came to the US at some point, and enlisted in November 1942. He worked for Harley-Davidson for 42 years...
In any case have four: a 14, a 10, and two 8s (one offset). The 14 (B-1-5) is late wartime (Jan 1945), the 10 (I4-7) something of a puzzle, perhaps April 1937. The two 8s are both postwar.
The 10 inch one has a name stamped into it: Helmuth Gierl. I bought this at a local Milwaukee consignment shop and a little googling found the probable owner, or rather his obituary:
https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/jsonline/name/helmuth-gierl-obituary?pid=103793212
https://www.ancientfaces.com/person/helmuth-gierl-birth-1920-united-states/157218576#biography
The second link (scroll down) shows him born around 1920 in Danzig, presumably came to the US at some point, and enlisted in November 1942. He worked for Harley-Davidson for 42 years...
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OP
Private Lugnutz
Well-known member
I'll edit. I did not mean to imply the thread was closed or there was no interest.
Much more likely April 1947. Ridge claimed first use of the trademarked angular plate as July 1937.
Very cool. I generally prefer collectibles without proprietary marks or names. But some proprietary marks are so well done they accent the piece, and some names actually enhance a piece, especially when it improves the provenance. I would consider this one of the better examples I have seen. That story will always be with the wrench now. My guess would be he bought it in 1947 after the war.
I just cleaned up a very rusty 14 inch from B 9 2 ( Sept. 1942?) using electrolysis which gives a nice dark finish (oxide)
OP
Private Lugnutz
Well-known member
Yes.
d42jeep
Well-known member
We found a 14” Ridgid pipe wrench from 1943 at a Piedmont, CA estate sale this morning. I tried to save as much of the original finish and sticker as I could while eliminating the ugly paint that the previous owner had applied.
-Don
-Don