The top wrench is unmarked and has a smooth hole what is the purpose for this hole?




The bottom 3 are marked.

Ventilation??

Quote from: leg17 on August 18, 2013, 09:23:06 AM
Ventilation??

I reckon if your holding something hot the heat can escape thru the ventilation hole :-)

Several decades ago, a fellow with increadable foresight said to himself, in the future there will be folks who collect pliers. And those folks will want to know everything about them. Who made them, why they were made, and what they were used for. So he decided to drill a large utterly useless hole in a perfectly good pair of pliers, knowing that, in the future, some poor fellow was going to pull out all his hair trying to figure out what the pointless hole was for....

Or it could be for crimping brass hose ferrules...

Quote from: rusty on August 18, 2013, 09:40:58 AM
Several decades ago, a fellow with increadable foresight said to himself, in the future there will be folks who collect pliers. And those folks will want to know everything about them. Who made them, why they were made, and what they were used for. So he decided to drill a large utterly useless hole in a perfectly good pair of pliers, knowing that, in the future, some poor fellow was going to pull out all his hair trying to figure out what the pointless hole was for....

Or it could be for crimping brass hose ferrules...

So which is it :-)

It appears to be for crimping gas pipes.  It is known as the gas hole.

They seemed similar to gas pipe pliers but that hole threw me off.
Most that I've seen look like this.

Later edit: I was wrong.  Looking over HeelSpur's two posts, he was asking about the pliers after all.  Sorry.

We're wandering off course.  HeelSpur's asking about the wrench, not the pliers.  The top wrench in the photo has a countersunk hole in it.  The pliers were probably included in the photo just for entertainment value.

I've seen - well, actually, I've got - automotive wrench sets with a hole in the middle, the whole set held together by a bolt and nut.  That way, instead of losing individual wrenches in the mess in the trunk, you could lose the whole thing.  Much neater.  But the location, and the countersink, make me think that's not the purpose of this hole.  I am mysticated.

Oh!..The wrench....duh ;P

The countersink is probably just a casting artifact, tapered hole so it would cast nicely..

Assuming it is for some impliment or such, perhaps for a clip to attach it to the machine so it wouldn't get lost....(stud and wingnut?)

QuoteThe top wrench is unmarked

I took it to mean the pliers because the top wrench IS marked 1893. Looks like a snath wrench.

The 1893 wrench came with lawn mowers (the old reel type) made by Dille & McGuire Manufacturing Co. of Richmond, Indiana. Usually the holes in wrenches were for hanging it on the machine or on a wall.

Quote from: Bill Houghton on August 18, 2013, 08:53:02 PM
Later edit: I was wrong.  Looking over HeelSpur's two posts, he was asking about the pliers after all.  Sorry.

We're wandering off course.  HeelSpur's asking about the wrench, not the pliers. 

Oops, I was referring to the pliers but I see I wrote down wrench.
Got some additional info though.

What size is the hole? It may be for smoothing up something you boogered up with the pliers teeth. I often could have used something like that.

Gas pliers were used by gas fitters for fitting gas lights, fires etc. Originally (at least in the UK) this was done in lead pipe, approx 3/8" OD, 1/4" bore - lead pipe easily deforms, so the hole could be used to true up the end of a deformed pipe. Mostly brass fittngs were soft soldered into the pipe - pipe fitters often had a multi tool 3/8" x 26TPI (Gas Thread) reamer, tap and die to clean up fittings. If the fitting was already soldered into the pipe, he would not want to mark the pipe by gripping it in serrated jaws....

*Sourced from http://www.wrenchingnews.com/sell-page/sell.html about 2/3 down the page*


Dille & McGuire 1893 Wrench - Richmond, Indiana
Dille & McGuire 1893 Wrench Image

    Markings side one: "1893".
    Markings side two: No markings.".
    Length: 4 inches.
    Reference: Hardware Jobbers Catalogs. Not in Rathbone.
    Condition: Excellent.
    Price: $12.50 (ref: MC/3-5)

This little wrench has been misidentified for years. The 1893 has been interpreted as the date or as a rifle model (one was on Ebay a couple years ago with a fresh, fake Winchester stamping) but recently parts list discovered in hardware catalogs from the Townley Metal & Hardware Company of Kansas City, Missouri and the Shapleigh Hardware Company of St. Louis correctly identified it as being one of the tools for lawnmowers manufactured by Dille & McGuire of Richmond, Indiana.