A friend who has given me many fine wrenches over the years, gave me this one the other night.  It is 12 1/2 inches long, has the number 2272 embossed on it, and has C inscribed in a diamond stamped on it. It looks, from the size of the openings
(2 5/8", 2 1/2", 1 3/8", and 2 1/4"), like a hub wrench.  Can anyone identify how this wrench was used, or who made it?

Dunno, but, looking around epay, I found several with a C in a diamond, and several with an H in a diamond.
Now, the interesting thing is, <H> was Herbrands old mark.....

There is a 2272 on e-Bay right now with a Herbrand stamp on it. It looks like a duplicate of my wrench!

http://www.ebay.com/itm/OLD-LARGE-MULTI-SIZE-FARM-MACHINE-WRENCH-GOOD-CONDITION-COLLECT-/160961033132?pt=Folk_Art&hash=item257a0673ac

Look more closely at the ebay one, it has BOTH stamps overprinted on each other!

how odd....

Ditto!  It is odd.

photo

Judging from the "H" stamp and the "H" boss overlaying the "C" stamp on the eBay wrench above, it looks as if Herbrand bought a lot of the "C"  2272 wrenches and did their best to obscure the "C" mark.

I think the logo changes were made to the mold patterns not the actual wrenches. We know the Herbrand logo but does anyone know who the "C" in a diamond belongs too?

Beside the 2272 I know of four other very similar wrenches:
X24C (orphan)
X210 (orphan)
4434 (Cole automobile)
A1480M" (Case automobile, I have only seen a part list picture not a wrench with these markings)

>...Herbrand bought a lot of the "C"  2272

Or made them?

There is an odd missing piece of Herbrands history, the diamond H mark was registered, with first use claimed 1908. But Herbrand was founded in 1888.

So, what mark were they using for the 20 years in between?

hmm