This one just made the trip across the pond to my house. It's a buy-to-sell thing though. I don't have enough money to keep wrenches like this.

nice catch from accross the ocean, and all the letters are still there.

also, in my favorite color, BROWN/RUST

Congrats again on "rescuing" that one from across the pond Dan! It looks like a real beauty. So what is the story with John Bull? Is that the name of a British farm equipment maker or something?

One story I have read, and have no way to verify, is that these were given out to people that bought "John Bull" baler twine. I would assume they had to buy a fair amount to get one, if there is any truth to the story.
I have tried checking into it, but John Bull is sort of like Acme here in the states. Way to many to track to a certain company without finding an ad or brochure or maybe a parts list showing the wrench.

John Bull was a brand for wrights ropes ltd, (makers of baler twine)
I don't think it is old enough tho....

Also a rubber company by that name, but I dunno why you would get a farm wrench for buying a fan belt...

Quote from: rusty on April 29, 2014, 08:17:40 PM
John Bull was a brand for wrights ropes ltd, (makers of baler twine)
I don't think it is old enough tho....

Also a rubber company by that name, but I dunno why you would get a farm wrench for buying a fan belt...

You can find 1,000 items with the brand name John Bull once you start digging.

Yesterdaystractor.com has an article by Bob Kavanagh;
tractors down-under
a brief history of tractors in Australia which mentions some early farm machinery,
included a stripper by John Bull

John Bull originated in the creation of Dr. John Arbuthnot, a friend of Jonathan Swift ("Gullivers' Travels") and satirist Alexander Pope in 1712, and was popularised first by British print makers. Arbuthnot created Bull in his pamphlet Law is a Bottomless Pit (1712)."[2] Originally derided, William Hogarth and other British writers made Bull "a heroic archetype of the freeborn Englishman."[2] Later, the figure of Bull was disseminated overseas by illustrators and writers such as American cartoonist Thomas Nast and Irish writer George Bernard Shaw, author of John Bull's Other Island.  [seems it/he was an inspiration. From Wikipedia]

There is also John Bull Works (Hearnshaw Bros), Garden St. Sheffield, maker of woodworking tools & cutlery, circa 1916

1906 it is said to be their trade mark (Hearnshaw vs Rogers & Sons)

That's one wrench I'm looking to buy. Nice find!