Why is it?

[john k]

I'm talking about those cast iron implement wrenches, why were they cast?   When I was  growing up, there were plenty of them in the shop, and in every tool box still attached to the old machinery in the grove.   These four, five, six opening combination wrenches, that on occasion have the parent company name on them.   Nearly everyone has at least one or two ears broken off the jaws, attesting to their delicateness.   I know they put them in the tool box, because farmers just didn't have a big selection of tools back when.   Many probably got way over used beyond their design limits, but was it cheapness to make them cast? 

[HeelSpur]

Good question.

[rusty]

Well, lets see...

There are 4 ways you can make a wrench, from cheap to expensive..

1) Stamp it from sheet metal
2) Cast it
3) Drop forge it
4) Machine it from a solid block of metal
5) Make it blacksmith style

But, in the mid-late 1800's..there are not yet any high speed stamping machines, drop forging is fairly new, and still labor intensive, *and* it only works with steel. Steel is expensive.
Making it blacksmith style, hammering, shaping cutting , filing, you are going to take days to make a few dozen wrenches. Casting them, you can make 30 dozen in one pour, and a decent foundry will do 20 pours a day...and they are cast iron, much cheaper than steel...

So, yes, cheapness.

But also design and advertising, an odd side effect of casting them is you can easily put your name on them, and decorate them, and it doesn't cost anything extra...
I suspect that, for some companies, this was probably a deciding factor even after they knew they should probably be providing a better quality of wrench..

[scottg]

Agree with Rusty. Cast is cheapest for sure.
 And one more.
 They were freebies.  Advertizing.
  It was common to make delicate lithographed color cards and sometimes specialty die cut advertizing and leave them on the store counter in a stack. Free to all.
 Shoe stores gave away shoe sticks with their name on. Lumberyards always had yardsticks. Pencils etc etc etc
 Before and after prohibition..................
 Beer companies gave taverns free trays with pretty girls in high color, and the brewer's name on. Saloon owners themselves would order flasks with Merry Christmas and Happy New on a label, with the tavern's name.  Then give them out to favored customers. Sometimes the flasks were in the shape of pigs "Something good from a hog's a---", was one popular embossing. Guess where the spout was located?
  Whiskey drummers used to bring fancy acid etched shot glasses and sometimes super fancy bottles, give free samples at the bar.

  So it least some of the wrenches must have been freebies that could be used if necessary, but really, the name on the wrench was more important in the tractor company or manure spreader outfit or whatever 's, mind.   
  yours Scott 

[rusty]

>flasks  ... in the shape of pigs

Oh, I WANT one!