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Favorite brand of adjustable wrench?

Jon_Spear

Hot Rolled
Joined
Aug 26, 2004
Location
San Francisco, CA
Over the past few years, I have outfitted my home shop via local garage and estate sales, and I have way more adjustable wrenches than I need. I particularly like the old railroad style monkey wrenches, which have a wide adjustable opening perpendicular to the handle, and a tip that can be used as a light hammer. I don't know if these are still made.

Because the prices for these things seemed so low, I have ended up with way more wrenches than I need.

Nowadays, I think the best Crescent-style adjustable wrenches are made in Spain by Channellock. They have graduated markings in both inches and mm, so you can set the width opening before bringing it to the bolt head. Also, the little 4-inch wrench opens all the way to 9/16", which seems to be wider than other brands.

I know it is a very minor tool, but I just wanted to recommend Channellock brand if you want a new one.
 
Jon --

You're right about the Spanish-made Channellock adjustable wrenches being absolutely top notch; I'm pretty sure that they're made for Channellock by Irega.

There are also some Crescent-style adjustable wrenches coming from Taiwan that are excellent. One version, which has a rubber grip that's very comfortable, has been sold under a number of different brand names, including Alltrade, Kastar, and Tiger-something-or-another.

I'll also mention the Taiwan-made "Mantool" D-10 and D-12 adjustable wrenchs, which have a hammer-head protrusion, designed and sold by Dan Lamons of Pierce Welding and Machine in Tennessee.

I scoffed at the idea of adding a hammer head to an adjustable wrench for a long time, but after seeing favorable reviews of the Mantool D-12 from "regulars" on another bulletin board, I broke down and bought one of the "Popular Mechanics" versions that Dan Lamons was selling to Wal-Mart. It turned out to be a wonderfully handy tool, especially when doing any sort of work that needs tappity-tap adjustments while bolting. (interestingly, the US Patent for the "original" Crescent Wrench includes a hammer-head feature)

The website is www.mantools.com

In the interests of full disclosure, Dan Lamons and I have exchanged a few E-mails over the last several years discussing the D-10, D-12, and some other hand-tool ideas. I am not financially involved in Dan's businesses in any way.

John
 
I am extremely fond of my 24" Proto adjustable. I have had it since about 1982, and there is no noticeable wear on it. Black oxide finish, which seems to be self maintaining in a dirty shop.
We use it every day for fine adjustments- straightening bar, round, angle and pipe, sometimes with a 6 foot cheater bar on it.
We usually take it in the field on installations as well- it is often the best way to apply a little persuasion in a controlled way.
 
I actually collect 4" adjustable wrenches. I have about forty variations. The one on my key ring for the last Thirty some odd years is a Utica. I Ground the back jaw slightly to give the tip of the wrench a slightly positive lean and then I took the worm wheel out and ground a little off the lead that would normally bottom out to 11/16" I don't push it at that width. The reason I modified it was because I've rode motorcycles since 1965. The four inch would never open up to remove the Swivel connectors on the bottom of British motorcycle fuel taps. I modified the wrench first to the Whitworth size to where it was fully open and just fit the nut. Then I redid it to the next nominal size. You ask about quality? I've never seen a Diamond tool of any description I would not be proud to own. Williams makes a fine adjustable. Others I consider to be good candidates are Crescent, Armstrong, Proto, The list goes on. The mosy powerful adjustable I have seen would be the Armstrong. My favorite would be the Diamond special wide opening. They are versital and slim. Not powerful but very usable. When I leave my truck to trouble shoot Who knows what usually I will need to make an adjustment. I grab three sizes of adjustables a four in one screw driver and a pair of channel locks. If I find out I actually need to dismantle something I return with a barage of sockets spanners etc. 90% of my work is mild adjustments and tweaking. I'm not a bit ashamed to whip out an adjustable. There are those who are to fine of a mechanic to own an adjustable. I'm not one of those.
 
Given the number of people I've seen using an adjustable crescent wrench as a hammer it seems only sensible to design it to be used as such :D

-Justin
 
I've got a couple of Westcott wrenches, one
large and one small. They have the curving
handles.

Other than that I kinda like the black oxide
cresent ones.

Jim
 
The Crescent-type wrench has been a bit like the canary in a cage for miners. The country of origin has been an early warning system that often tells where manufacturing is moving next. Slight design innovations have also been tracked for the past hundred years.

Japanese adjustable wrenches of good quality started showing up here in the 70's. I've also seen decent English, Russian, Polish, Mexican, Spanish, etc. units. As John notes, the Taiwanese are making both good very quality and cleverly designed variants -- including the measuring graduations, rapid opening, locking, multi-purpose, and ergonomic types. China has also greatly improved quality -- just check a US made Craftsman versus Chinese made Companion branded wrench next time at Sears.

To my knowledge, Diamond was the first to offer an adjustable wrench with a head one size up (e.g. the 6" wrench opened as large as an 8"). The idea was that the wrench was of such high quality that it could take the added strain. However, their QC was so bad, that many of these wrenches wouldn't open to the loudly proclaimed size noted on the package. Good idea to differentiate (at that time from the Japanese and Taiwanese imports just starting). Bad execution.

One variant I never fully understood was the double ended adjustable Crescent wrench (or Diamond etc. variants). It's cool enough as a marketing gimmick, but it never seemed all that practical compared to buying two wrenches for about the same money and same space taken in a tool box. Anyone know more about these or when they were discontinued?

About the only place I've not seen a good adjustable wrench from is India, and that may be just because of the few crummy samples I've come across.
 
I haven’t really got a favourite, but my 12” Bahco is nicely balanced for twirling round and throwing up and catching. I don’t suppose that’s a good criterion, though. I’ve recently bought a Stanley 10” which has been brilliantly combined with a Vise-Grip (Mole Wrench we call them here) locking arrangement. This ensures a good fit, thus overcoming the main objection to adjustables, but it doesn’t always release easily.

My recently-acquired tool buying fad caused me to buy these (cheaply). I’m cheating by including a Reed pipe wrench. It’s not so much a wrench as a trap for unwary hands. The jaw cocks back against a spring, and snaps shut like an alligator under the slightest provocation. As you can see, it’s OK at the moment, it’s been fed. I’ve never used it in anger, but someone has, judging by the slight bend. I don’t know anything about the others, apart from the fact that one of them is very ugly and the other is less so.
image0001.jpg
 
MMm.

Diamond is the finest in my book. Forged, real forging.

Crescent bought them to get their wide opening design.

The Snapon AD series you can't buy anymore is my second favorite. The Flank Drive looks odd to me and the new red cushion grips have the look of cheaze to my eye.

RE the double ended Crescent, I also don't understand the reasoning behind that product.

-Matt
 
In my service kit I carrie 2 adjustable wrenches, a 6" and a 10". If I need sockets or wrenches I go back to my truck and get them but on 90% of my service calls they work just fine. I use Sweden made Bahco brand, after all they invented the idea and pattened it in 1892 plus they are made out of some of the finest steel. Mt 10" one looks like new after 23 years of use plus I like the black oxide finish. Cresent stole the design and got around the pattent by changing the hand of the screw so you have to turn the screw the other direction to open or close a Bahco wrench. Fun to lend it to a mechanic and watch him fiddle with it, good for a laugh or two.
Bill
 
I have some Snap-On flank drive plus adj. wrenches that are the cat's meow. The jaws have serrations that bite into the work and the back of the handle is wider to fit in your hand better.
Got them used off Ebay.

All that said the one I keep in my shop apron is a black 8" Crescent.
 
Concur on the Bahco 'crescent' wrenches.....they are a somewhat better design, but it is a petty nuisance to have to remember that they tighten opposite-hand of American Crescents.

I have no idea as to how many crescents we have here.....but it would be quite a few, counting those in the vehicles, those left on the machines, etc.

Personally, I don't think there is much to choose between crescents of any of the good standard 'mil-spec' makes, i.e. Crescent, Williams, Armstrong, Plomb/P&C/Proto, Diamond Calk, Utica, etc.but, as with many other items, the vintage is more important.

Up to the '40's production..more or less...the crescents were thicker and somewhat clumsier....'40's through sometime in the '60's were the 'high water mark' of quality' in the good makes.

I've never paid much attention to the specific make when buying these wrenches, if it was one of the 'mil-spec' good makes...so long as it comes up for 50cts to, say, $2-ish at the flea market.

Any one of those makes will work about as well as any other...as an example of cost-effectiveness, a rusty Proto 15" crescent, bought for 50cts, put through the glass-beads and then the black oxide, does seem a pretty cost-effective tool for its purpose.

I've not the vaguest idea as to why Crescent made the double-end crescents, or, for that matter, why the Diamond Calk works chose to offer that same bit of silliness as well....but they are a cute piece of 'Americana', and offered the Model T Ford mechanics a somewhat more convenient way to round off the bolt-heads and nuts on the 'T' cars.

Putting serrations or a pattern of centre-punch marks on the wrench jaws to make the wrench less likely to slip on the nut is an old automotive mechanics' trick from, well, way back when..

The crescent wrench is real 'Americana', alright....could anyone even begin to estimate the number of those in existence, in this country?....or, for that matter, how very small a percentage of the American population would be those who haven't even one crescent wrench amongst their possessions?

cheers

Carla
 
I'm a sucker for adjustable wrenches, especially old American made odd brands, and have prolly a dozen or so from yard sales and flea markets. But my fav has a real story behind it.

15 years or so back, I spent a couple weeks in Japan on a job. I fell in love with an adjustable wrench made there under the "Lobster" brand name. I was on my flight home when I realized that I had neglected to bring one home.

Every since, I had kept my eye open for one with no luck.

Fast forward ten years...I'm out riding my bike early one morning on the lonely country road I live on. Up ahead I see something on the road. When I get there what do I see but a 10" Lobster?!?!?!?

What are the odds on THAT????

OMcG
 
An adjustable wrench by the name of "Finn" was sold by one or more of the farm magazines several years ago. Its claim to fame was a hex (Allen) wrench that ran thru the center of the worm wheel and could be pulled out slightly to tighten the wrench firmly on a worn bolt. I have used a few of these but never owned one. They were of good quality, but the extra torque feature was not usually all that helpful.

Of the many adjustables I own, my 15" Diamond is the one I would never want to give up. It has been one tough tool for 20+ years.

I think the only brand I can add to the list is Vlcheck(sp?). I have an 8" model that is very nice.

Rick
 
Personally I don't think anything beats the Armstrong/Williams adjustable wrenches. Of course since both companies have changed hands in the last few years who knows what current prouduction is like. I have an older Cresent brand that is very good, some Protos that are OK but none of them are as good as my Williams. Zoom
 
I am fond of those old 'monkey wrench' styles. I have a few Diamond Horseshoe branded models in my tool boxes, at home. They are pristene and I keep them around for sentimental reasons. At work I buy the Diamond and Armstrong brand Crescent styles from harryepstein.com . Harry also sells the old monkey wrenches that are branded Crescent. They come in two sizes and one of those in your hands makes salried types do a double take. They also open very wide and make good pipe wrenches on hex and octagon fittings. I have too much pride to use them as hammers.

Harry's prices are about half and they sell in bulk. Our temp employees pinch tools so fast that I need a dozen new adjustables each week. I never let a temp touch these old type adjustable wrenches. Lately I have resorted to engraving all our loaned wrenches, 'Stolen from M Project'. It does no good but it makes me feel better. They have a harder time hocking them for cigarettes and other necessaties that way.

For plain old 'whip on it with a big hammer' type wrenches, I use the Rigid wrenches that have no teeth and use a sixty degree vee top and bottom jaw. They look like a pipe wrench except for the jaw shape. They are just the ticket for those little stuck hex fasteners of the three inch and older persuasion. When the guys at work see me with my ten pound brass hammer and twenty four inch Rigid wrench, everyone knows something has got to give. Remember; If it will not budge, use the big hammer. If it breaks, it needed replacing anyway.
 
I have a bunch too and my favorites are all black oxide and stamped PG&E (Pacific Gas and Electric). They all came from local flea markets, and look just like some Wright-branded wrenches I have (which also look like some Craftsman wrenches I've seen).

I used to have one that adjusted with a sliding brass button in the handle - there was a screw (a cam, really) inside, with a very coarse "thread", in which a protrusion on the button rode. A set of bevel gears at the open end drove the actual adjusting screw. As you might imagine, it was hard to use.

And regarding Indian wrenches, I had a (relatively) good one when I was there. I had to carry it on my bicycle to keep parts from falling off. I don't recall the brand, but it wasn't bad. Regretfully, I left it behind. The bike, I don't miss.

Andrew
 








 
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