Handee H & E 10-inch nut wrench

[Wrenchmensch]

I'd seen these wrenches, made by the H and E Wrench Company of New Bedford, Massachusetts, in antiques stores for way more than I wanted to pay for one. I finally came across an affordable one last week.

The company's slide-adjusting nut wrench was described by patent #1,391,179, filed by Hemphill and Evans in 1920 and issued on September 20, 1921. This patent was assigned to the Universal Tool Company, a Utah corporation and presumably an earlier venture by the inventors.   

Its double-threaded adjusting screw, after being cleaned and greased, still works easily. Guys at last night's Man Cave meeting pronounced this wrench as the one they liked best from the collection!

These wrenches were made of super hard steel. I have never seen one with mushroomed jaws. Has anyone run a Rockwell Hardness test on this wrench?

I tried motor oil as the adjusting screw lubricant, but it didn't work that well.  Then I tried Sil-Glyde, a silicone impregnated grease manufactured by the American Grease Stick Company in Muskegon, Michigan, which worked much better.  Any alternative lubricant suggestions will be tried next time this wrench gets cleaned.

[rusty]

It's not the grease or the oil, what kills those is dirt, it gets stuck in the screw and jams it, and then someone forces it, and the screw bows out of the wrench and gets a kink in it , and then it won't slide nice any more.
In good shape, you should be able to hold the wrench by the collar, and it will drop through by itsels unscrewing the lead screw just from it's own weight.

I would lean towards the thinnist oil possible to keep it from collecting dust and dirt....

(It's not like it is going to be rotating millions of times in it's remaining lifetime..)

PS: Those are really great look-at-that tools, everyone I showed the one I had to, was dumbstruck by it...

[Lewill2]

They made 3 different styles of that wrench. One is similar to yours with V cut in the jaws and a pipe wrench version.

[Lewill2]

Pictures of my 3. Note that the pipe wrench version operates the opposite the standard ones do. Adjusting collar up is closed on the pipe version. Adjusting collar down is closed on the standard versions.

[Wrenchmensch]

Nice collection of H and E wrenches!!!

[Lewill2]

Pipe wrench version came with most of the tattered box that it was mailed in. Looks to be unused.

[rusty]

Is the finish on the pipe wrench blued steel?

[Lewill2]

The upper and lower jaw are blued but the main part of the handle isn't.

[Lewill2]

OOPs I mean the collar that adjusts the wrench isn't.

[Wrenchmensch]

Found one of the H and E pipe wrenches over the weekend. Lewill inspired me to look for one!