# Strange Wrench!!



## Birchwood (May 13, 2005)

I came across an interesting wrench in some old stuff. It is about 18" long and very well made; has a diamond shaped logo on it. The tool looks like an ordinary pipe wrench BUT there are no serrations in the jaws....they are perfectly smooth. This wrench appears to be made of alulminum and as i said, is very well constructed.
Anybody know what it is?


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## kp91 (Sep 10, 2004)

Sounds like a Monkey wrench. We have them in both steel and aluminum at work. 

The flat jows don't mar fittings the way the pipe wrenches do.


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## AxlMyk (Jun 13, 2006)

I have a couple of those. Pretty old ones. They make great hammers in a pinch.
As I recall a Stilson wrench, the handle was bent in an S shape. I have one someplace but can't find it right now.


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## Mike (Nov 22, 2004)

Sooner or later the Brits will chime in and tell you these are adjustable spanners.


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## Mike Wingate (Apr 26, 2009)

We call them Adjustable Spanners with no mar faces. U.S. made adjustables go by the name of King Dick over here, a brand name? One of my snake handled wrenches (Stilson?). Has the letter P and a happy snail as the only markings.


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## harrysin (Jan 15, 2007)

Here you are Mike with British and Aussie names plus a few extra types, I could have shown more but want to see what others come up with, especially Bj.


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## xplorx4 (Dec 1, 2008)

My grandfather always called channel locks water pump pliers I may have some Stilson wrenches in my tools. What you call a adjustable wrench he called a crescent wrench. I think some of us are showing our age when we talk about these things.


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## Gene Howe (Jul 10, 2007)

harrysin said:


> Here you are Mike with British and Aussie names plus a few extra types, I could have shown more but want to see what others come up with, especially Bj.


Boy, you got the name right on those adjustable (Crescent) wrenches, i.e. "shifting" spanners. A very descriptive verb. How many knuckles have I skinned working on farm equipment with one of those. :sad:
My dad's "tool box" consisted of one of those "shifting" spanners, a 12" common screw driver and a ball peen hammer. If it couldn't be fixed with those tools, we needed an electrician or a welder. God forbid we bought a new part!! Heresy!!:nono::nono:


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## Mike Wingate (Apr 26, 2009)

Crescent wrenches were originally made by the Crescent Co. How about a double sided "French Wrench"? Monkey and Mole wrenches?


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## harrysin (Jan 15, 2007)

Jerry, you are so right, I had forgotten that when I arrived in Australia in 1964 it had to be explained to me what a Crescent was. Probably because there are so many migrants here from the UK that the name Crescent is no longer common.


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## derek willis (Jan 21, 2009)

Crikey Harry!!! you've got nearly as many as me.


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## harrysin (Jan 15, 2007)

derek willis said:


> Crikey Harry!!! you've got nearly as many as me.


May be so Derek, but wait 'till Bj is fully awake!


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## bobj3 (Jan 17, 2006)

Hi Guys

You have me beat on this one,,I put that type of tool in the trash can along time ago 
Made to round off square nuts...you do recall square nuts right 

I have my share of channel locks(16 from 4" to 18"),crescent wrenchs(26 from 2" to 24"),pipe wrenchs (14 from 4 to 18") but not one of the old monkey wrenchs..  at one time all new cars from Ford, you got one in the tool box..I think Mike nailed it a great hammer but not so great for taking nuts off LOL LOL 

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## harrysin (Jan 15, 2007)

A Stillson IS a pipe wrench Bj, what do YOU call a pipe wrench? With that many tools I can't expect immediate photos. but how about in a few days?


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## harrysin (Jan 15, 2007)

What did I tell you Derek!


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## bobj3 (Jan 17, 2006)

HI Harry

Pipe wrench below



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harrysin said:


> A Stillson IS a pipe wrench Bj, what do YOU call a pipe wrench? With that many tools I can't expect immediate photos. but how about in a few days?


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## AxlMyk (Jun 13, 2006)

This is the wrench I have always called a Stillson. Another old timer wrench I've had since my Apprenticeship.


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## harrysin (Jan 15, 2007)

Nah Mike that's just a kinky shifting spanner. My 18" stillson happens to be made in the good old US of A, no wonder it's given me such great service for the last 40 or so years.


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## derek willis (Jan 21, 2009)

Nothing changes!!!!


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## bobj3 (Jan 17, 2006)

Hi Harry

I don't need to pull them all out for a picture or two we all have seen this type of tools but I did find one or two I forgot about in the tool box,,,I just recalled why I keep the monkey wrench ,it's the only one that short and will open to 3 1/2" jaw,it works great for under the sink repairs on the nasty piping and there is always no room under the sink for the long ones 
And the other one has a nice bend on it 


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## westend (Mar 31, 2009)

I've got some tool envy for that curved one, Bob. It looks like you either put them away, serviced, or you just gave them a treatment. Inquiring minds...


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## bobj3 (Jan 17, 2006)

Hi Lance

Yep ,I pulled them out of the tool box and they where nasty from being in the bottom of the tool box so I did clean and paint them up a little bit,,for the snapshot ( Sunday best thing  )

Now that I got it cleaned up I need to do a weld job the curve one,I didn't see it till I got it clean again..

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westend said:


> I've got some tool envy for that curved one, Bob. It looks like you either put them away, serviced, or you just gave them a treatment. Inquiring minds...


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## GBM (Dec 18, 2007)

To avoid skinned knuckles using a cresent always be sure the movable jaw is forward when applying power. 

I think our cresent wrenches adjustment knob works backwards because the blueprint was sent from the UK to the US patent office reversed. 

Monkey wrenches were spanners used by the men who crawled around on the single power shafts common at the start of the industrial age... where water mill power typically was providing the power for the whole building through flat belts from up high... those guys called monkeys were up there greasing the bearings. 

I do not think smooth faced spanners were used for pipes...


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## westend (Mar 31, 2009)

bobj3 said:


> Hi Lance
> 
> Yep ,I pulled them out of the tool box and they where nasty from being in the bottom of the tool box so I did clean and paint them up a little bit,,for the snapshot ( Sunday best thing  )
> 
> ...


Thanks for the reply, Bob. I use tools everyday so am always interested in how other tool users maintain their inventory. As I acquire more tools, maintenance becomes a greater issue. 
I cleaned out my truck tool boxes this spring and found that I had left a stack of resharpened circular saw and table saw blades on the bottom of one drawer. Though rusted, I was able to recover them.
Your curved Crescent/adjustable-swiveling spanner was probably used as what I describe as a "basin wrench", used to access supply lines and drains under an installed wash basin/sink.

About the nomenclature of wrenches: pretty much a regional thing, I've found. I didn't know what a Stilson wrench was until I started working in TX, nor what a spanner was, until working on British-Leyland. I always distinguished "monkey wrench" from "pipe wrench" by the addition of the spring strap and the different adjustment thead in the former. It was cool to hear of the history of "monkeys" posted by GBM.


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