Kwik-set pipe wrench

[jimwrench]

How did the Bjornson boys from Canada get an American patent (Sep 7,1926) and manufacture their pipe wrench in Marshalltown Ia ? Wonder if there was a connection between the kwik-set wrench and the Hawkeye alligator wrench. Marshalltown is pretty small to have too many wrench companies. Picked this copy up at the Apple and Pork Festival in Clinton,Il

[mvwcnews]

An authoritative answer appears  on pgs 7-8 of the June 1997 MVWC Newsletter.   
To summarize, Joe Adams & Archie Gary of Marshalltown "Improved" the Bjornson patent no. 1,599,399.  The foundry was in Bettendorf, IA.  (Info came from Joe Adams's daughter.) 
An advertising piece reprinted there mentions only one size -- 14 inch.

[rusty]

For the middle of the corn belt, Marshalltown was a very busy place, there are several more wrench inventors who lived there, and at least 2 more wrench companies, yeash ;P

A fellow named John R. Morris was busy inventing wrenches (895285, listed in datamp as being made by Marshalltown Drop Forge , and 947081 made not all that far away by Morris-Blodgett(Independence,MO)
Morris was also inventing Hatchets for the National Hatchet Co, also of Marshalltown , and plier like things for MDF,

and a William A. Norton , of Marshalltown has 2 more wrench patents (1503662,1540798(not listed))

Kinda messes up my 'nothing but fields of golden corn' notion ;P

[jimwrench]

 That was a good article Stan. Unfortunately my blind spot got me again. In the 2003 cabin fever auction in York a 12 1/2 inch version is shown and it shows a cast projection on end of movable jaw. Mine has a fracture face where the projection has been broken off quite recently. This is not the first time I've bought a broken wrench but it still bites.
 The Adams and Gray connection gives us the AG pipe wrench designation.