Man's finest invention?



Any particular favorites?


The Spanish made Channellock version are pretty decent IMHO.

When we were kids they were called "West Virginia Socket Sets"

Diamond - because that is what dad used.

Most of mine are Crescent brand, Made in the USA. Got some Proto brand as well.

Sam;
Good afternoon to you sir, I hope the weekend was a good one for you all.

When we started to see metric marked adjustable wrenches up here, we couldn't resist trying to convince the gullible that one needed an older standard measure wrench for the North American stuff and a metric one for the Euro and Japanese made stuff. As I recall I had at least one guy convinced...

Indeed though Sam, no tool kit is complete without a good set of Crescent or adjustable wrenches AND a bunch of different sizes of adjustable water pump pliers!

On my bloody '03 Dodge pickup a guy needs to have a complete set of metric, standard and Torx bit sockets too. Who's brilliant idea to sprinkle the truck with fasteners with all three types I can't say Sam - but they surely did....

I can't say if it's man's greatest invention - the strike anywhere match comes to mind there - but it's up there alright.

All the best to you all this week Sam.

Dwayne

Crescent and Bonney here..

Jamestown, NY is the birth place of the Crescent Wrench.

I too am a fan of the Spanish made Channellocks. The Bahco variety is also pretty sweet.

Knipex...good stuff

Crescent wrenches are fine and all, but a set of Knipex channel locks are the cats pajamas.

VA, around here they sometimes double as hammer.



ADD, Mudstud, those are familiar names!

I have old clunker that is stamped Tiger Brand. It is a chunky and generally unhandy tool.





Dwayne, good afternoon to you as well!

Everything is moving along fine here. We are currently in the 1-2 week behind schedule routine(aka spring). Branding and hauling out pairs to pasture, should be in the field seeding but the old Versatile needed a little work.

Which brings us back to the topic of the adjustable wrench.

When used in combination with normal wrenches in tight places they really shine....

My dad carried a Wizard 12" everywhere he went

Snap on was better than Mac, but not by much.


Hard to believe that a premium tool would have jaws that were not parallel.

Crescent and Channel Lock brands are pretty good.


American made Craftsman were okay too. The three pack was how I bought them.

Farmers wrench,

every tractor need one in the tool box.
Of course back then, you could fix stuff with a wrench, pliers and a screwdriver.

Craftsman. Stainless

Yep, crescents, channel locks, and vise-grips although not always the best tool for the job, are just damn handy.

AND LET'S NOT GET STARTED ON THE NEEDLE-NOSED PLIERS!

A lot can fixed with a pair of knipex cobra pliers and a crescent wrench.


I carry a 4” channellock wrench in my pocket everyday.

Crescent wrenches are one place where I prefer the foreign made version.........since so many vehicles now have metric fasteners.












😀

Grew up in TX we called them OK sockets sets.

We called em mescan speed wrenches..

Many of these were made by Western Forge. They’re typically marked WF. Last I knew, H.J. Epstein still sold Western Forge adjustable wrenches.

The Swedish ones that came in Volvo and Saab tool kits were pretty sweet. Some of them had an alligator wrench on the opposite end.

Yep. Around here we called them mescan speed wrenches when I was a kid.

Well, that’s racist..

We called them "cussit wrench"

I remember that too!


Even though none of us had ever seen a real live Mexican before.

Mini inch wrench.

Years ag we had a lot guys from Germany and the UK working in tool rooms. One of the Brits once informed me in no uncertain terms that “Cresent” is a brand name. The tool is properly referred to as an “adjustable spanner.”

I still have a 10" Cresent that my Dad gave me when I started my job in 1988

A lot of the chrome has worn through and the nickel is showing but I still use it often

Didn't know they came in brands. ;-{>8 That and a big hammer were my dad's entire tool kit.

Same goes with parrot nose pliers and channeloks.

I like the Klein 12 incher with the spud handle.....

I knew this was a cresent wrench crowd.....

If I remember correctly they would not take lug nuts off of a cor wheel.

1. China
2. Pakistan
3. India

In that order, the grittier, the better. 😝

Only when used with WD-40 then one can fix anything...

When i was a Ladd and worked in a boat service center
The boss taught me to carry the smallest Snap on Cresesnt wrench I think its about 4 inches

he called it a step saver and it was
I still have it although I dont carry it

Hank

This coming from a fellow who undoubtedly also called a “bonnet” part of a car. 😀

I like the ones made in England.....they fit the Whitworth fasteners on old Triumph motorcycles.

American metric wrenches.

Ever see a Mine wrench? A hammer lug built in.

In about 1969, I found a LAKESIDE - 10 IN. - 84-4700 - Made In USA - adjustable wrench - with my White's Gold Master metal detector
in a small almost forgotten rural Minnesota church yard & cemetery. I could tell it had been lost there for a very long time.

Dirt, small winding roots, and what-not came out with the wrench. I threw it in my car - and much later, one day at work, I brought
it in to clean it up. Luck would have it, in the garage and the poor light, there was a shallow pan of old diesel fuel or kerosene
and I threw it in there and forgot about it - for about a year. Well, it was still there when I stuck my hand in the pan - so I retrieved it,
rinsed it off, used a wire brush wheel on it and oiled it up good.

My wrench stayed there, hanging on a workbench behind me for almost 50 years - until I retired.
People used my 'crescent' wrench often, every work day - for all that time. Hardly anyone even thought it was mine.

I was going to leave it there when I retired - but It somehow turned up at my home any way
and I've been stuck with it again ever since.

As things turn out, that little picturesque church yard has appealed to my generation of in-laws.
A couple of them sadly are already there, and my loving wife also got us a couple of plots.

I'm thinking of returning it to the cemetery when I go, and bury it alongside my ashes.
But I also think it escaped there once - and deserves better.

I wish I could do pictures - It's got character and strength. It works proper & the old wire brush patina - gives it a warm glow.

Now that my friends is what make the 'Fire worthwhile.



Great post P Weed.

Once, when I was a much younger man, I found myself in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. I stopped in the local watering hole and saw the regulars were nursing their modelos in the dim quiet. I stayed as quiet as the mood seemed purposeful. Later at the hotel, the manager explained that in these working class towns, the wives were not allowed into the bars as it was the only place the husbands could escape them.

So my entry into Man's Finest Invention it would be the Exclusion Rule.

That is also not a bad nomination....grin

Sam, the adjustable wrench may be like the garments in the old Fredric's of Hollywood catalog. "One size fits all" Well, don't be so sure.

Adjustable Metric Wrench

We called them,,,"fits all, fits nothing"

Made in America - Toby Keith

"He won;t buy nothin' that he can't fix
With WD40 and a Craftsman wrench..."

I usually have the one on the right in my pocket.

NERD ALERT!

And let me tell you all something... I will fugking drive 40 miles to an appropriate wrench before I sit around fugkin' with a GD crescent wrench. If you need a "do all" it's a couple pair of Vise-Grips.

6/10... pending images

FUQK THAT LIBTARD OBAMA COCK SUCKIN MOTHER FUQKER.

I have two, one in standard and one in metric.

Sam,

I'm super drunk and need to get to sleep but I wanted to relay a story to you before I pass out. So if I may...

I took a load of schit I don't need (and one dog) to the Will Creek dump yesterday. This dump is not far from one of my all time favorite gopher spots so I thought I would stop in and thank them for the ten years of hospitality they've granted since I moved here. After the dump drop I make the long drive up the driveway and I was welcomed by about 30 born-n-raised Hi-Liners staring at me like the idiot that I am. They're covered in dirt and smell like burnt cow hair. Yep. Branding day. And I'm the ass-hole in basketball shorts and flip-flops driving a 1980 Boyota. Jesus Fugkin' Christ. I got balls but exiting the vehicle whilst that Busch Light drinking crew stared right through me kinda made me uncomfortable. They of course are all wearing the Wranglers they painted on that morning and hats that convey they actually work for a living.

Thank the fugkin' Lord I knew one guy in the crowd but he took no mercy on me. Didn't say schit. So I called him out by name. "Hi Bobby!" "Hey Travis" was his reply but in a fugk you I like seeing you uncomfortable kinda way. I tell him and another guy I just stopped by to tell the landowner I was moving and just wanted to thank him for letting me shoot on his place all these years. But of course, if you really wanted to thank a guy you'd be helping brand, right? Holy schit I felt like an ass-hole.

So long story short, I end up finding the landowner and thank him for all his years of hospitality. He was beyond smashed and replied "Who the fugk are you?" It was awful. Absolutely awful. One of the most awkward moments you could imagine. The guy standing next to him told me to just come back and talk to him later. I explained I was moving to Florida and his reply was "What the fugk you gonna do in Florida?" Awful. Horrendous. Most awkward encounter you could imagine.

One rancher took pity on me as I was walking away and said "Don't feel bad. He wouldn't even know who I am if I said hello right now."

That made me feel slightly better as I drove on down the road.



Travis

In Australia, we call them a SHIFTER with Sidchrome beings a long time favorite.

My first day working on a piledriver my partner asked me for my "westcott",and i said " whats that?" " its
the wrench in your back pocket, moron."all the old timers called it a "westcott".

Crescent is probably the best quality...as they are beefier all around....but I have a few old Diamond wrenches...I do like the they are slim and verry easy to handle...I have had a Damond 4 inch on my key ring for over 30 years...my kids all cut teeth on it...
Kinpex plyers in my leg pocket every day...

I have about half dozen of them from 4" to 15". The oldest one was always kept in the 9N Ford (1953) tractor tool box. It was old when Dad put it in there. It is marked Crescent Tool Co. Utica NY USA. Probably made in the kater 1940's.

Most of the oilfield guys a work around walk around with a proto cresent wrench in their back pocket every day. Some of them have been using the same one for 10 plus years.

Crescent Wrench - one size strips all

Having said that I've got about 10 of them. They make a fair hammer in a pinch too.

Cool.

Cheap crescents are knuckle busters but good ones have saved the day many times. I don't have many uses for a 1 1/2 sockets but my big Crescent will tighten a hitch ball any time I need it done. I use those channel locks a lot, too.

Ah, yes. The good old "all -16ths wrench". A good one is really close to a useful tool, and a bad one can always be used to throw at something else that desperately deserves it.

And I thought they were called Monkey Spanners.

My bad

Pussies

Makes Florida look better all the time.

Just a couple of days ago, me and my son are out at the implement shed. I've got a [bleep] of tools out there but I cannot find the socket I need to tight up this bale spike on my loader. Son can't find it either. Could've walked up to the garage where there's a second [bleep] of tools or looked in my truck's toolbox.

"Just get the [bleep] crescent."

FIXED

Thanks Hank.

As I was reading this nice thread. I thought,-------Everyone love a good tool...or two..

Hey, I hope y'all have a great week.

Take care.

Good day to you BC, and I couldn't agree more about the insanity of using every style known to mankind on a vehicle! I'm barely a shadetree mechanic-truth to be know I don't wrench on my vehicles much any more unless really necessary, but to work on these "American" made vehicles, you definitely need standard, metric, torx, and whatever else the designers could find to put them together with. Whatever happened to the days when 3/8, 7/16, 1/2, 9/16 and a couple spark plug sockets was all you needed?

My favorite unit of measure: a schitt load.

deflave, that was a pretty sad story. Hope it wasn't for real.

I have used Diamond for years , I think those open wider than some of the others.

Now you can't fix anything without plugging a laptop in first.

Crescent hammer. Awesome tool.
I've got them from 6'-24". I prefer the Diamond brand.

Those were in the days when it was all made there, now the parts are made everywhere they can be sourced cheap so you get every type of fastening and thread.

At least all the Japanese manufactured vehicles stay with metric, so you only require one set of tools, thirty-four elbows, three laptops, and two off-siders.

And for those of us at 6'5", a 10 year old son to actually be able to get to some of the stuff.

Speaking of.... had some problems with the skid steer last week, so we call the shop to send someone out (we're already four weeks behind, no time to wrench). They send a guy out that is 6'4" to wrench on a skid steer.......... Seemed to be tool poorly matched to the job...

Many years ago, I was in Australia doing some work and one of the guys there asked if he could borrow my "settable spanner". I had no idea what he was talking about until he pointed to it. Then the light came on.


Jerry

When a 1inch hydraulic line blows on a big tractor and the fittings are up and under the radiator and oil cooler you will use any wrench that will give you that 1/6 the turn. This includes the cresant wrench which some people will not use. Ed k

I am fortunate to have been gifted a full set of left handed Cresent Wrenches years ago. Dang hard for those of us in our Right mind to use regular ones....

I’ve got them and use them. But they will always be known as Knuckle Skinners. Hasbeen

Used one on an outer tie rod back in February. My new nail is starting to grow under the black one.

Left to right; SAE Metric Torx



I hardly ever use one but I've sure accumulated a mixed bag of them over the years.
I'm not sure how though because I honestly can't remember ever buying one.

This thread put a question worthy of historical research on a family crescent wrench. Wife's grandfather bought a new 1939 H tractor in 1940. He sold it to her father in the early fifties. At some point prior to 1965 a valve cover pan turned upside down was bolted to the left side of the tractor to serve as open toolbox. Along with other vintage tools the box contained two vintage crescent wrenches when I purchased the tractor about eight years ago. I use the tractor for bush hogging and other jobs on a regular basis. Couldn't do without those two Crescents and other rusty vintage tools. In that box you will also find rusty bailing wire, another must have for real farmers. If those Crescents could talk, bet they would swear a lot from all the knuckles they helped skin. GW

Crap, all these years I have been using those as a micrometer.

I can't believe that after all the baling wire I've had piled around here, I'm about out.

I've got Blue Point (Snap On), Crescent, Diamond, and Craftsman crescent wrenches, just that I recall. Oh and a big Chinese one I bought for pulling my disc's bearings.

Here's a couple of pre-Cresent adjustable wrenches.....matter of fact that old Ford Wrench is probably the original adjustable wrench.

I was getting low on bailing wire myself and a nephew gave me some that was shiny. Thought it only came in rusty red and found hanging in barn rafters. Said it came out of Kansas, so keep an eye out in SW Kansas as its available on the black market. GW

https://www.harryepstein.com/

10 years ago while buying new old stock Bonney wrenches from Epstein, I also ordered a shipment of surplus silver dollar sized Neodymium magnets.

The box arrived empty of magnets and a big hole in the side of the box. I called up Epstein and asked them to send replacement magnets. The guy tried to argue with me, but gave up laughing and sent more magnets.

Not only a source for unusual items, but some unusual people there too.

I keep 2 tools in my tractors......a pair of vice-grips and a crescent wrench. Used to keep a bunch of stuff until I had to leave the tractor close to a road one night, and somebody borrowed them. I figure those 2 tools will pretty much fix something that can be fixed in the field. If it requires more tools, then it's probably going to have to be pulled out of the field and taken back to the shop.

Good one and my experience as well! Or - nut rounder.

OTOH, channel locks are good stuff.

More fasteners have been effed up with "crescent" wrenches than anything --- except pliers.

I have 14 crescent wrenches; two of which have the worm gear teeth stripped off. Does any one know where I could find replacements, or do I just have a couple of odd shaped hammers?


Jim

From Truck #1

I prefer the Diamond Horse Shoe to most others. I have them in 6",10", 12", and 18".
The 18" gets used more than the others because I don't mind using a hammer on it.
The little 6" gets used a bit too...

Saw the adjustable klein spud mentioned. One of the unhandiest tools ever designed.

I do have a 12" klein that was in a locker given to me when I hired in to my current employer.
Better quality than most, but that aint' saying much.

Should have a separate discussion of channel lock pliers. Diamond Horse Shoe made the best ever. Proveable fact.

This is a mexican speed wrench

The crescent wrench is an out dated and pretty useless tool anymore until you get up into the larger sizes... 36" and over! Only half way decent smaller ones is pickle hardened has a black oxide finish and a spud wrench as a handle.

Phil

Fortunately no one has made any islamophobic jokes about crescent wenches.

I cried.....


Then I burnt a P Weed fattie, downed a family size bag of Doritos (cool ranch) and stared at a 12".......for hours.





No. Not that you Hi-Line limpdick, my adjustable hammer.

Slave

That's a gas wrench.

A smoke wrench

An adjustable jaw wrench, "Crescent", may be like a date with a homily woman, better than nothing.

Technically they are called fully ajustBle slack jawed spanner. Your welcome . Ed k

Never seen an adjustable hammer.


Pics or it did not happen.

I have one. 4 diffrent striking surfaces. Screw out and screw in replacements as needed. 3 softer heards for dead blows, and one steel head.

I think locking pliers beats or at least ties adjustable wrenches in the pantheon of human achievement.

My Dad was an ironworker and used an adjustable wrench with a pointed handle called a spud wrench. You would carry two of them on a tool belt/bolt bag and when the pieces of structural steel were delivered to you via crane, you would stick one or both of the spud wrenches in the bolt holes and "spud it" ie get the pieces to line up good enough to get a bolt or two started by hand. All of the threads on the bolts either sucked or got damaged in the lining up process so they would normally "roll". So, you would then use one spud wrench to turn the nut and the other to "hold the roll" on the bolt.

I got a taste of that kind of work summers during high school and college. The weather was hot as hell which made the steel you were working with also hot as hell and some clown was always giving me hell about being a tenderfoot and not working fast enough because I was overly concerned I might fall to my death. Under those conditions, and being a weapons enthusiast from way back, I noticed that the spud wrench would be an excellent tool for both bludgeoning and stabbing in addition to its intended purpose. Talk about a versatile tool!

D'oh!

I received my new crescent wrench today.


Its an electronic crescent wrench.....very fancy.

Leah, the unlovely?

If it has a built in clock, you won’t have to wear a wristwatch anymore.

Also.known as an alignment pin or drift pin. I use them in my work as well. Yours sounds like this type
https://www.wonkeedonkeetools.co.uk...P15/29SP-15-1_repeat_6-9_TBI_podger_.jpg

Where as the ones I use are this design
http://woodgears.ca/reader/walters/driftpin.jpg

AS LONG AS THE USER PLACES THE WRENCH ON RIGHT ! ..yup there is rite an wrong u wenches!

I prefer my wenches hot, tight, and well endowed.

So the adjustment is closer to what u wack than the head ??????!!!!!!

I've seen ads for those.....IIRC they're expensive as hell.

commonly known as a farmers fix all.

norm

I hate them. I told my guys if one showed up in my shop they would be disposed of promptly. Some got thrown in the ditch, a few dropped in the 32-0-0 tank. One was cut inhalf and place on the front seat of one stubborn employees truck, It was a second offense. I hate rounding off nuts.

Ha ! Years ago when working as a millwright that generally held to be true. Boss always yelled "Don't fix it, just get it running !"

lol

If I could only have one tool - It would be a big Hammer!

If you can't it with that - You can fix it so nobody else can either.

Dad always said that man with a Cresent wrench, a vicegrips, a slipjoint pliers and a multibit screwdriver could fix a powerful amount ov things in a pinch given a good length of heavy gauge wire.

My father-in-law drove a farm fuel delivery vehicle. He kept a large Crescent wrench under the seat. More than one aggressive dog got tuned up when they tried to attack him while he was making a delivery. He said he seldom came across a dog that needed a reminder.

Maybe a Crescent wrench could be a civilian collapsible baton in jurisdictions where they are illegal (Canada)? Your honor, I realized I was in a perilous situation. I tried to extricate myself but was unsuccessful. I believed myself to be under attack and in danger of serious grievious injury and or death. I grabbed what was handy, I guess I must have left that Crescent wrench under the seat after the last repair. When the person threatening me did not retreat upon seeing the wrench, but continued to approach me in a threatening manner, I set about defending myself in a vigorous manner. I beat the threatening person with the wrench until a) he ran away, b) he fell down after several blows to the head and neck area and he was no longer a threat to me. I immediately called 911. I tried to perform first aid, but I was shaking so bad I was unable to do so. EMT advised me he was DOA.

Could work.

When I worked in a forge shop and stamping, we used huge crescent wrenches to change dies. Most of the time we had to use them with pipe extensions that were 4ft long. I had never seen wrenches that big. Some of those wrenches had been used for many years. All were USA made.

GrandDad always kept one of those huge industrial sized Crescents Wrench’s in every tractor. Seen him get out of the tractor and kill rattlesnakes with it many times. He was not one to waste ammo.

About the only tools I carry in my Ranch truck nowadays is a huge set of Channel Locks, an Axe, Fencing Pliers, and a couple of big screw drivers.
Dad’s old Ranch Truck has enough Craftsman Tools in it to open a damned a Sears Store. I should never have to buy another tool in my lifetime as many as he had at the Ranch.

all crescent wrenches or channel locks i've had disappear thanks to my stepsons.

Your honor, I applied the wrench until his nuts fell off. Problem solved.

Naw, something like this is fairly inexpensive
https://img.kawanlama.com/media/cat...5d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/K/W/KW0102040_1.JPG

Far cheaper than an Eastwing.

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/31KZmn9FC%2BL._SX355_.jpg

https://ae01.alicdn.com/kf/HTB1t.pz...-bike-Portable-maintenance-tool-GOOD.jpg

https://odditymall.com/includes/content/upload/flex-claw-hammer-576.jpg

https://kfd.com.au/65-large_default/hammer-wrench.jpg

http://threadsource.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/mining-wrench-product.jpg

https://www.avensafetytools.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/126.jpg

https://www.discoverchrysalis.com/l...le-gauge-and-cutting-blade-960-x-325.jpg
I have one of these.

I'm gonna catch up on this thread this evening, I did see Flave got the 'ol cowboy cold shoulder....

Poor bastard!

In Australia, they're called shifting spanners.

They use 'em to shift a lot of [bleep] !

Handy, to be sure, but excellent at rounding off bolts heads & nuts !

We used to have a laborer on the jobsite we called "Crescent Wrench". He earned that nickname because every time you needed him, you'd find he'd slipped off!

Those fugkers sound like a real pain in the ass.

Fencing pliers are some handy sumbeeches!

Just about every lineman will have a 12" wrench on his belt or in his bucket. We preferred the brands that had a screw through the thumb screw vs the ones that were pinned in. We would file or cut an additional notch in the jaws so it would open enough to fit the nuts on 7/8" bolts. This probably weakened the wrench a little but we were tightening bolts on wooden structures. Also, no one wanted to climb with a 16 or 20 in wrench on their belt. The best wrenches seemed to be Blackhawk or Proto. We also had Klien, Craftsman and ChannelLock. Williams seemed to hold up ok. I was never around a Snao-On.

Always carried the protos. Their 8” will open to 1 1/8” to fit oxy /acer regulators and victor tip nuts.

Easy to tote in back pocket or bucket.

What some call Cresent wrenches, are actually monkey wrenches. (Smooth parallel jaws for square nuts, and used by type setters and printer's monkeys.)