Two uncommon Crescent-style 8" adjustables, or what?

[Wrenchmensch]

I believe these two wrenches are somewhat uncommon.

[Papaw]

The Vulcan Manufacturing Company operated in Winona, Minnesota and is currently known only by the wrench in the next figure.

From Alloy Artifacts- http://home.comcast.net/~alloy-artifacts/other-makers-p3.html  Scroll down to Vulcan.

[Wrenchmensch]

Noel:

The Alloy Artifacts photo shows a 10" Largrip wrench. Mine is an 8" Largrip wrench. One could conclude the Vulcan Manufacturing Company of Winona, Minnesota produced only these two wrenches, never mastering their production, distribution and other challenges, and had a shorter than normal organizational existence.

At this point, I would be very interested to see any other wrenches, or other tools, produced by Vulcan Manufacturing Company of Winona, MN. Anybody got any, and care to share?

[chopper1]

I believe that the Fairmount was made by Mac.
I have both Mac and Fairmount 6" adjustables and they are identical down to the lettering.
I'll see if I can get a photo up this afternoon.

[Bus]

I know of two 4" Vulcan Crescent types. One sold in one of my auctions and I have seen another in a collection.

[rusty]

Vulcan had a fairly long existance, several decades, but they were not a tool maker, they were an auto accessory maker, they made jacks , roof racks etc. I suspect the adjustable wrenches were their going in and going out of the tool business....

[Wrenchmensch]

Thanks, everyone for sharing your expertise and insights into the Vulcan Largrip and Fairmount crescent-style wrenches. 

A couple of questions occurred as I read through the responses to the initial post. For instance, did Vulcan Manufacturing actually fabricate its crescent-style wrenches, or was its production of wrenches outsourced? If outsourced, to whom?  The Largrip wrench has symbols on it - an HTM in a circle boss and an NR in a circle stamp. Are these the contractor's marks?  Can anyone outside of a former Vulcan Manufacturing employee answer these questions

The case made by Chopper1 is a good one. Did MAC tools buy the Fairmount brand shortly after Fairmount closed down? Is there a record of this? Better still, what is, or was, the relationship between the earlier Fairmount company and the later MAC company?

[chopper1]

Thanks, everyone for sharing your expertise and insights into the Vulcan Largrip and Fairmount crescent-style wrenches. 

A couple of questions occurred as I read through the responses to the initial post. For instance, did Vulcan Manufacturing actually fabricate its crescent-style wrenches, or was its production of wrenches outsourced? If outsourced, to whom?  The Largrip wrench has symbols on it - an HTM in a circle boss and an NR in a circle stamp. Are these the contractor's marks?  Can anyone outside of a former Vulcan Manufacturing employee answer these questions

The case made by Chopper1 is a good one. Did MAC tools buy the Fairmount brand shortly after Fairmount closed down? Is there a record of this? Better still, what is, or was, the relationship between the earlier Fairmount company and the later MAC company?

Fairmount was bought by Martin and they moved Fairmount production from Ohio to Texas.  There is a little information about this on AA.

[Wrenchmensch]

From Alloy Artifacts:

Fairmount Tool and Forging was founded in 1917 in Cleveland, Ohio, and became well known as a contract manufacturer for automobile tool kits. The company also specialized in tools for automobile body work.

Currently we have only very limited information for this company. The company is listed in a 1931 "Corporations and Directors" directory, which indicates that Fairmount Tool and Forging was incorporated in 1917, with J. Wentworth Smith as President. A small brochure from 1928 for their automobile body tools gives the company address as 10611 Quincy Avenue in Cleveland, and offers their new auto body work instruction manual "The Key to Metal Bumping" for $0.25 postpaid. (As an aside, this little book became very popular, and remains in print today!) The brochure shows the use of an inverted diamond logo enclosing the "FTF" company initials.

Based on information printed in the 1953 Third Edition of "The Key To Metal Bumping", by 1953 Fairmount had become a subsidiary of Houdaille Industries, an industrial conglomerate. Fairmount remained as a division of Houdaille until July of 1984, when the company was acquired by the Martin Sprocket and Gear Corporation. The Fairmount operations were renamed as the Martin Tools division, and the line of tools continues in production today under the Martin brand.

The information above does not support a tie-in with MAC tools.

[chopper1]

From Alloy Artifacts:

Fairmount Tool and Forging was founded in 1917 in Cleveland, Ohio, and became well known as a contract manufacturer for automobile tool kits. The company also specialized in tools for automobile body work.

Currently we have only very limited information for this company. The company is listed in a 1931 "Corporations and Directors" directory, which indicates that Fairmount Tool and Forging was incorporated in 1917, with J. Wentworth Smith as President. A small brochure from 1928 for their automobile body tools gives the company address as 10611 Quincy Avenue in Cleveland, and offers their new auto body work instruction manual "The Key to Metal Bumping" for $0.25 postpaid. (As an aside, this little book became very popular, and remains in print today!) The brochure shows the use of an inverted diamond logo enclosing the "FTF" company initials.

Based on information printed in the 1953 Third Edition of "The Key To Metal Bumping", by 1953 Fairmount had become a subsidiary of Houdaille Industries, an industrial conglomerate. Fairmount remained as a division of Houdaille until July of 1984, when the company was acquired by the Martin Sprocket and Gear Corporation. The Fairmount operations were renamed as the Martin Tools division, and the line of tools continues in production today under the Martin brand.

The information above does not support a tie-in with MAC tools.

No it doesn't, but then again it doesn't mention that New Britian was Fairmount's supplier of sockets and, I believe, ratchets.  Fairmount was noted for their body dollies and hammers, and as far as mechanic's tools, only made wrenches and adjustable auto wrenches and some pipe wrenches, as AA shows. 
My step dad worked at the Fairmount foundry in the 50's but unfortunately he passed over 20 years ago so I can't confirm it with him.
I'm not sure what the connection is between MAC and Fairmount as far as the adjustable wrenches go but they are obviously made by the same manufacturer, whether it's MAC, Fairmount or someone else.  But, I've never seen another one identical to these two with a different name. Hopefully someone else can chime in with an answer.

[crankshaftdan II]

Noel:

The Alloy Artifacts photo shows a 10" Largrip wrench. Mine is an 8" Largrip wrench. One could conclude the Vulcan Manufacturing Company of Winona, Minnesota produced only these two wrenches, never mastering their production, distribution and other challenges, and had a shorter than normal organizational existence.

At this point, I would be very interested to see any other wrenches, or other tools, produced by Vulcan Manufacturing Company of Winona, MN. Anybody got any, and care to share?

Don't know if we are talking on the same wave length?  This socket is marked with the Vulcan name and the reverse side is J.H. Williams-if there is any assocation between VMC & williams??

[rusty]

Different Vulcan. Williams used Vulcan as a brand name. Vulcan manufacturing was the name of an actual company, unrelated. There were also quite a lot of other 'vulcan' companies...

[Wrenchmensch]

Could it be that MAC in its infancy and Fairmount in its dotage both outsourced their adjustable wrenches to the same fabricator, one who was not above stealing an idea from here and there?

[rusty]

>Could it be that MAC in its infancy and Fairmount in its dotage both outsourced their adjustable wrenches to the same fabricator, one who was not above stealing an idea from here and there?


Like, perhaps JH Williams? Both wrenches are identical to Williams carbon steel series, including the single line around the name.

The thing to check is they keyway, Williams is square, not round, a patented feature that gives away the identity of their adjustables...