Bed Key/ Bed Wrench ID

[Papaw]

An email from New Zealand asks-

I have found your site while searching for more information about an old bed wrench or key my Dad bought me years ago.  While there is a mark punched on the tool, some letters are difficult to make out, plus several are missing where there is a small scooped out place in the metal – which was probably there before the name was punched over the top.  It appears to read R. Wit ???lind & Sons.
The tool was bought in an antique shop in New Zealand, which is where I live.
I am afraid I do not know enough about metal working to tell you if the tool is hand forged or moulded (we add that “u” here in New Zealand!).  There are what I would call “chisel” cuts, approx quarter inch long or slightly less, in the four corners of the central slot, both front & back, as if the maker hand cut out the slot, plus, between the cuts, a very small “scoop” of iron has been removed, front & back.  NB: It is the “scoop” on the topside of the tool that obscures the letters.
 
Are you able to identify the maker, or suggest somewhere else I could look to find out?

I have replied asking for pictures if possible, and steered her to HTPAA in Australia.

[Papaw]

Seems she has found her answer-

Well, one of my clever sons, being a whiz with the internet search engines, found the exact tool online, and was able to read the manufacturer:  R. Timmins & Sons, Birmingham, England.  Further sleuth work may reveal a possible date of manufacture.  Attached are two views of it.  Each of the three ends has a similar socket (?) for undoing bolts/nuts.

 

With kind regards

 

Barbara Rhodes

[rusty]

Hmm, well, sometime after 1796 anyhow...
There are patent entries into the 1850's...can not find where they went tho...

[anglesmith]

They merged with W&C Winn to become Winn,Timmins & Co in 1889  The Timmins pattern book of 1845? has been reprinted by both Philip Walker and Kenneth Roberts. The Roberts book contains a lot of history of both firms.
Graeme

[skipskip]

bed key wrench?

Is this for some commercial  "bed business"?

Kinda like a chastity belt for a bed?

or maybe to open the "magic fingers" coin box?

Skip

[rusty]

It is the 18th century version of the cheap stamped steel wrench you get with build it yourself furniture in a box...

>Kinda like a chastity belt for a bed?

That would require a wench key.

[Papaw]

I could be for tightening the ropes or metal "slats" in old beds. Remember "Sleep tight" refered to adjusting the bed so it didn't droop.

[Chillylulu]

It is the 18th century version of the cheap stamped steel wrench you get with build it yourself furniture in a box...

>Kinda like a chastity belt for a bed?

That would require a wench key.