I got the Wizard they loaned me at the dump to try to disassemble the ShopSmith last week! It's a #19 in pretty good shape. Note that the patent was pending when this one was made. The patent was issued Nov. 14, 1922.
When I was cleaning it, I found (under the unexposed part of the handle) that it had originally been color casehardened. The colors there were still fine. I guess that their wrenches were all casehardened, as we saw a while back with those tiger striped models of Pawpa's. I forgot to get a pic of the colors.
The rest of the story is this. The yard man was telling me last week that he had had a 6" crescent that he always carried. One day he loaned it to someone needing to take something apart. That someone drove away with his wrench. It was an old, blackened Crestalloy. We had a nice chat about old tools, and he gave me a Stanley Defiance "automatic tape measure. This week, I brought him a spare 8" blackened Crestalloy that I had to replace the one that went away.
I asked again about the Wizard. He went to the tool bucket, pulled it out and just gave it to me. I'd brought along another 8" adjustable wrench (nothing collectable, but in good shape) and tossed it in the bucket so that there was an adjustable in case anyone needed it, and the yard man wouldn't have to loan out his own again.
The Wizard will be a constant reminder of good times between tool folks.
