Pipe Clamps or what?

[grayjc]

Hello everyone.  I'm new to the forum and thanks for allowing me to post here.  A friend was cleaning out his Gpa's barn and found these 2 steel cast hinged parts that appear to be a pipe clamp of some kind.  The larger of the two has an inside diameter of 1.25 inch when closed.  The smaller has an ID of 3/8 inch.  They appear to have an attachment for a handle to either apply clamping force or also to open the hinged sections (3 each).  I'm not convinced that these are clamps since they have a hard stop when closing and would not apply pressure after hitting the hard stop.

The Granddad worked in North Alabama and had many blacksmith type tools but I can't say for certain if this was his trade.

Any help identifying these would be appreciated.  Thanks

Grayjc

[Lostmind]

Welcome from Ohio
They are jaws from a pipe wrench , made to clamp around a pipe.
Hopefully someone will post a photo of the complete piece , I don't have a photo right now.

[Papaw]

Welcome from Texas!
That is part of a Parmelee wrench possibly made by Walworth.



Discussed on Tool Talk http://www.papawswrench.com/vboard/index.php?topic=9000.0

Patent- 
http://www.datamp.org/patents/displayPatent.php?pn=871436&id=34844

Parmelee's pipe wrench by maxthedog67, on Flickr

[grayjc]

Well my guessing and speculation is finally over.  Thanks for the information.

Now I just need to find that darn handle.......

John

[mvwcnews]

I'm working on the JUNE MVWC Newsletter now & have some PARMELEE history in it including Homer Parmelee's 1907 obit.  He was 69 when he got the first PARMELEE wrench patent in 1888 & was still working on the design into his mid-80s.   As a result of my reading, I revised the text for the four PARMELEE wrench patents in DATAMP.
( http://www.datamp.org/patents/displayPatent.php?number=379,123&type= ) is the 1888 patent; it has links to the other three.