As you know, I get emails often asking for info on wrenches. This one has not been one I know about.
QuoteHi ,
I am 81 years old, retired and spending my time picking up old tools and
reselling, primarily thru eBay, instead of watching the grass grow - -
or watching TV.
I have had this wrench for 3 years and can find nothing about it except
for a tool auction a few years ago where they mentioned they couldn't
find anything either! It also shows up in Donnelly's Catalog of Antique
Tools - - and again they can find no information.
I live 45 minutes North of Milwaukee and have spent several hours at the
Public Library Reference Bureau looking at old directories - - - and
found nothing.
The fact that Ken Cope was from Milwaukee and the wrench is not listed
in his Wrench book is interesting. Wish I could talk to him.
My best guess, now, is that some early company in Milwaukee, using a
subsidiary name and anticipating obtaining a patent, started
manufacturing and ran into infringement problems and halted manufacture,
all before they had made/sold many wrenches.
I am hoping you might have run across this one before and might have
some information ?
I also checked Cope, Shultz, Alloy Artifacts, and The Wrenching News with no results.
Here are views of the Tite-Grip wrench. Pat Applied For
I have one in my collection marked, P & R Wrench Co Grand Rapids Mich, It is 6 ΒΌ Inches Long Closed. I never found anything out about mine either.
There was one in the Don Ervin 2008 "wrenching news" auction (http://www.wrenchingnews.com/ervin-auction-2008/catalog.html -- lot #188) No one came up with any more information at that time either.
I had a small wrench that I had asked Herb Page about one time but I don't remember if it was this one or one from Baltimore that he had found info on. I never wrote down what he told me and that information is long gone from my memory bank.