Tool Talk
Wrench Forum => Wrench Forum => Topic started by: woodsman22 on August 25, 2011, 09:06:12 AM
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Anybody have any info on the Tobrin Tool Co, Plantsville, Conn? So far all I've found is on the "Old Wood Wooding Machines" web page, and that's sparse. I have the 14" pipe wrench.
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I have a Tobrin perfect handle tire tool that someone made into a chisel. posted pics under general discussion a while back. Donnelly listed a perfect handle screwdriver by Tobrin in 1999 catalog and suggests Tobrin made have taken over perfect handle business after demise of H D Smith company. Haven't researched further.
Jim
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Trimo (Trimont) took over the perfect handle wrench designs after H D Smith failed, Tobrin and others carried on the screwdrivers. Brown & Sharpe also produced some of the mechanics wrenches.
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Tobrin also aquired an inventor in the deal, a patent search for W.S.Thomson is enlightening...
(Particularly 1122335 (Smith's perfect handled pipe wrench), and later patents are to Tobrin...)
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I have Tobrin adjustable pipe wrenches.
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Howdy - I have a Tobrin 10" pipe wrench in my collection. It appears Tobrin took over all of Smith's products and then sold the wrench mfg aspect to Trimo.
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Initially, yes, Iron Age, 1923:
"The Tobrin Tool Co., Plantsville, Conn., has been organized to manufacture pipe wrenches, screwdrivers and other tools. ... vice-president and secretary : Robert W. Pain, treasurer, all of whom were formerly associated with the H. D. Smith ..."
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Initially, yes, Iron Age, 1923:
"The Tobrin Tool Co., Plantsville, Conn., has been organized to manufacture pipe wrenches, screwdrivers and other tools. ... vice-president and secretary : Robert W. Pain, treasurer, all of whom were formerly associated with the H. D. Smith ..."
1923 would make Tobrin an "offshoot" of H.D. Smith, rather than a successor (Tobrin is not noted in Cope's wrench book by the way) -- there are other instances in tool maker history of this happening. Famously, Frank Mossberg sold off the Mossberg Wrench Company, and then started the Frank Mossberg company to produce newer & better styles of wrenches. There was also a breakaway group who left J.H. Williams and started a competitor company in the chain wrench business.
Regards, Stan S.
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I have a smallish Tobrin screwdriver with a standard fluted wood handle (not even close to a Perfect Handle design). It's a well made driver, in fair condition, and looks similar to other wooden handled drivers of the 1940's & 1950's.
almost forgot to mention, the shank on this driver goes thru the wood handle and has a metal striking cap at the top of the handle. This seems odd to me on such a small 3" x 3/16" slot driver. Perhaps the cap is just decorative and not intended for striking.
At any rate, this is the first and only Tobrin tool I have found in the wild over the last 20 years; definately not something I run into every day.