Tool Talk
Wrench Forum => Wrench Forum => Topic started by: Bill Houghton on May 06, 2012, 12:57:21 PM
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I picked up a cute little pipe wrench at a sale lately and thought I'd post it, together with the cuter littler one I've had for years.
The angled-jaw wrench is the new one. It's marked "Lawson/Ushco Mfg. Co. Inc./Buffalo, NY, USA" on one side, and "Drop Forged Steel" on the other, and is about 8" long with the jaw closed.
The wood-handled wrench has lived in my general-purpose-but-especially-cars toolbox for years, and is, really, a reminder of when I owned cars* that used pipe thread on some of the components. 7" long with the jaw closed, is a Walworth Mfg. Co. wrench, so marked in a couple of spots, with "Stillson/Registered Trade Mark" in a diamond-shaped logo in others. I didn't know until looking it up just now that Walworth originated the Stillson pipe wrench design.
*1949 Studebaker truck, 1973 Volvo, maybe some others.
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The Stillson is a keeper, and a good user. Looks like early design, which hasn't really been improved on to this day.
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USHCO aka US Hame Co ...
Also used the name US Body & Forging, under which they made Truck and car bodies in the early part of the century for Dodge, Plymouth, Willys erc..
Gottfrid Lawson's wrench patent was almost an afterthought, ;P
Nice article about the auto side of the company here: http://www.coachbuilt.com/bui/u/us_body/us_body.htm
(Caution! The above site will distract you for hours)