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Antiques! => Antique Questions Forum => Topic started by: talesofthesevenseas on April 04, 2010, 09:13:23 PM

Title: A Dozen Strange Wrenches Found Under My House
Post by: talesofthesevenseas on April 04, 2010, 09:13:23 PM
These wrenches were found under my house. There are a dozen of them and the funny thing is, they are all exactly the same size. I expected that they would have varying sizes for the gap, but they are all exactly the same and cut from the same template.

They have no makers mark that I can see and are quite old an rusted. They have a funny hooked tail at the end that I suspect was designed so that they could hang on a wire that would run along a garage wall, or maybe a nail. Somewhere I think I remember seeing tools that hung on a strand of wire.

So what are these? Bicycle wrenches? Old Model T wrenches?

My house was built in 1935, but we found a couple of books dating to the early 1900's under the house with the wrenches, so I suspect that these too could be earlier than the house.

I thought these were cast iron at first, but there is a tiny amount of shiny silver metal visible. So they are cut from some sort of a flat piece of metal that has rusted badly.

Anyone know what these are?

(http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x124/talesofthesevenseas/Wrench1.jpg)

(http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x124/talesofthesevenseas/Wrench2.jpg)

(http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x124/talesofthesevenseas/Wrench3.jpg)
Title: Re: A Dozen Strange Wrenches Found Under My House
Post by: waywardangler on April 04, 2010, 09:22:41 PM
They are spanner wrenches.  Could be any age and quite commonly used in plumbing.  
Title: Re: A Dozen Strange Wrenches Found Under My House
Post by: talesofthesevenseas on April 04, 2010, 09:24:58 PM
That was quick! Thanks Wayward!
Title: Re: A Dozen Strange Wrenches Found Under My House
Post by: regularjoe2 on April 04, 2010, 10:03:37 PM
I'm pretty sure you've got spanners that were commonly included in tool kits for motorcycles , used for adjusting spring tension on rear spring (around the shock absorber) assemblies .

If metric (square wrench end) , japanese ; if wentworth - they're Brits .

Image below is one for 1969 Triumph TR6R .


Title: Re: A Dozen Strange Wrenches Found Under My House
Post by: talesofthesevenseas on April 05, 2010, 12:15:56 PM
I'm not familiar with the term Wentworth, but by looking at the photo, I'm guessing that the non-spanner wrench head would be rounded on a Wentworth style, right? So these are probably old British motorcycle wrenches then, right? That's kinda neat!

Title: Re: A Dozen Strange Wrenches Found Under My House
Post by: regularjoe2 on April 05, 2010, 03:58:12 PM
Wentworth wrenches are a bit 'off' of all standards , measurement-wise .
They were a measure onto themselves .

Just measure the gap (square cut-out) & if it's not standard or metric ... viola !