Ratcheting Wrenches

[Yadda]

Ratcheting wrench set from last weekend's estate sale.  The 9/16 wrench is a Thorsen Speed-Hed wrench. Alloy Artifacts points out Spped-Hed wrenches bear a stocking resemblance to  Vlchek wrenches. The others are Quali-Kraft, a Montgomery Ward tool brand.  They were manufactured in Japan.  Also, per Alloy Artifacts, the Thorsen Speed-Hed wrench is from the mid 50's making it close to 70 years old.  The Quali-Kraft wrenches could be from as late as the 90's.

[bruto]

At some point in the 90's Home Depot was selling a Husky variant of these, quite decent, as part of some crazy promotion, in which the central object was a fairly cheap plastic tool box for 12 bucks, but in it was a small set of those wrenches and, amazingly, a Husky indexing ratchet wrench!  This latter has a head that offsets sideways, and has proved to be incredibly useful over the years.

Anyway, those wrenches work pretty well as long as you're not tackling stuff that's too rusty and seized. But then you probably wouldn't be using the open end for that anyway.

[Grant Lamontagne]

I'll admit it took me a second.  I have a set of ratcheting wrenches and the ratchet mechanism is on the box end.  I looked very closely at the box ends to see how well hidden the ratcheting parts were and completely missed the open end.   

These look very cool- I'd agree with what Bruto said above, but that takes nothing away from how great a set of wrenches that is!

Def

[Yadda]

Thanks guys!  I was surprised to find them. You never know what you will find at estate sales.

[MadPlumbarian]

Interesting,,
JR

[Grant Lamontagne]

Thanks guys!  I was surprised to find them. You never know what you will find at estate sales.

Yeah, I have found some cool stuff over the years at that kind of thing.  The great things about old wrenches is no one else ever seems to want them or see the value in them so you can usually get a pretty good deal on them.

And, they don't really wear out, nor do they become obsolete with new tech or anything like that.  They are just as useful today as they were the day they left the factory, no matter how they have been stored or how much they have been used.

There's not a lot of products out there that you can say that about.   

Def

[rep]

OK,   I don't get it, and I am an old geezer who has used wrenches a few times.  How do these ratchet, please?

[Grant Lamontagne]

The cutouts in the open end are designed to slip when turned one way and grip when turned the other way.  There is no ratcheting mechanism, it's just a bunch of clever grinds that allow it to only turn one way.

There is a bit of technique involved in doing it "properly" but once you get it it works quite well.

Def

[rep]

Thanks!

[Yadda]

The cutouts in the open end are designed to slip when turned one way and grip when turned the other way.  There is no ratcheting mechanism, it's just a bunch of clever grinds that allow it to only turn one way.

There is a bit of technique involved in doing it "properly" but once you get it it works quite well.

Def

Exactly!

[Yadda]

I should have titled the entry "Rachet Action Wrenches".

[bruto]

As a kind of aside, it seems Thorsen was the first to sell these wrenches under the Speed-hed name, possibly from another maker's patent. Thorsen's corporate history is a fantastic mares' nest of acquisitions and exchanges and the like, very confusing indeed.

I'm reminded of a PBS kids' show my stepson watched back in the 1990's, which had a sub-section called "Mathnet," rather amusing mysteries based on mathematical laws and such, and one of their favorite joke names was "BLT Industries," the initials standing for "buy it loot it and trash it." It looks as if Thorsen ran into a few of those.  They were once a pretty reputable second-line outfit, making sturdy tools without quite the polish and such of Craftsman or the like, but decent, similar to Barcalo and Bonney I think.  Back in the 90's or early 2000's, a kind of random assortment of new Thorsen tools started showing up in surplus places like Big Lots.  If you were lucky you could get sizes that were worthwhile.  I think I found an 18 mm. or two, and some dirt-cheap 3/4 inch sockets. Good robust stuff if you run across it.

They made fairly sturdy ratchet sets, including at least some with an open ratchet that was primitive and just about foolproof and immune to hidden wear. Again, something I keep an eye out for in rusty buckets of old tools at yard sales.

It was pouring rain but it stopped so I got out to the shop for a little added info:

Pictures below show the Husky version of the ratcheting open end wrench, not, it seems exactly like the ones above.  Also the worth-the-whole-rest Husky indexing ratchet, which is very handy and is, by the way, about the only tool (with claw socket on it) that can remove the fuel filter on a 2003 Chevy Silverado without making a day of it and risking language so blue it endangers the souls of children half a mile away.

The other picture is of a garage-sale Thorsen set, which obviously spend rather too long in the wrong part of the garage.  One of these days I'll take a wire brush to it, but then I might have to rethink its usual place in the spare tire well of the car.

Note the Thorsen ratchets Not fine or elegant, but immune to almost any punishment, including neglect.

[Yadda]

bruto, thanks for sharing your photos and stories.  Try some Evaporust or DeoxC on the socket set.  You'll be amazed at how much rust they remove.

Those open gear ratchets are usually missing their dust covers. You are correct.  They are very durable.