News:

"A determined soul will do more with a rusty monkey wrench than a loafer will accomplish with all the tools in a machine shop." - Robert Hughes

Main Menu

Homestead valve wrenches maybe?

Started by skylab, October 12, 2011, 07:28:15 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

skylab

any ideas?
Homestead Valve Co?
I may look for other sizes.
CONTRIBUTOR
Looking to buy farm implement wrenches.  They can be orphans

Papaw

Probably right- for gas valves or welding bottles.
Member of PHARTS - Perfect Handle Admiration, Restoration and Torturing Society
 
Flickr page- https://www.flickr.com/photos/nhankamer/

rusty


Homestead Valve co of Pittsburg,PA is mentioned in Steam engineering around the 1920's
There are also references in 1902 of them building a brass foundry, and of them making 2-way and 3 way valves, and they are mentioned in Railway Gazette...for 'blowoff valves' (pressure relief valves for boilers) so I suspect they were primarily making steam valves.
Just a weathered light rust/WD40 mix patina.

gibsontool

Depending on the opening size, they could well be for acetylene or mapp gas cyinders, some manufacturers provided a round handle on the valve stem but some of the companies just left the square valve stem sticking straight up and you had to use a wrench similar to what you are showing here to open the valve. The stems were usually 1/4'' or 5/16'. The wrenches tended to get lost quite often and the general practise was to use an cresent style  wrench and the pointed end of a spud wrench thru the hole in the end of the cresent to get enough leverage to open and close the valve