Pawn Shop on Thursday

[dimwittedmoose51]

Decided to sponge of the local pawn shops AC as it was hot out after work, and found these wrenches for like $5.

The 4 off to the right  I think are all Indestros and then top to bottom there's: 
NO name cool offset wrench
Vlchek WBE20
Billings
Westline
DuroChrome
A metric of some sort
Merit
Waldes Tru Arc
Pliers say CRONK on them, but that could be a name.

[eddie hudson]

Cronk was a toolmaker.

[Branson]

Cronk was a toolmaker.

And those are Cronk Button's patent pliers.  You can find them on AA.

[RedVise]

"NO name cool offset wrench"


came across one of those the other week, I agree, visually a cool wrench. It came home with me.

Brian L.

[bonneyman]

Decided to sponge of the local pawn shops AC as it was hot out after work...

:) As an HVAC contractor, I know all the best places to get A/C for free!

[lauver]

Gang,

Don't know if it's common knowledge, but Sears used to carry Merit wrenches in their "Big Book" catalogs back in the mid 1920's to early 1930's.  Merit was not a Sears brand, they were simply offered as an alternative to Sears Craftsman tools.

I have never run into a single Merit branded tool in several decades of tool trolling. Great snag Dim!

[dimwittedmoose51]

Thanks for the info.  At least it wasn't made by the cigarette co. by the same name!!!  The guy sold that stash for .40 per piece. Hell, I was needing a wrench fix.....

DM&FS

[lbgradwell]

A metric of some sort

It's hard to tell from the photo, but that mark resembles a keystone...

Is there an "L" inside the keystone? If so, it's the Lakeside Forge Company.

But having said that, I'd be surprised to find a metric Lakeside Forge wrench, so..?

[dimwittedmoose51]

No L inside the logo and I'm not sure exactly what a keystone looks like, but the shape is similar to the Heinz ketchup logo shape.

The Merit wrench has an AF on one side of the logo side of the wrench and a 27 in the middle of the other.  The end sizes are 11/16"x19/32".

The Metric wrench says "forged steel" on the other side if that helps.  Now on to posting today's finds

[Papaw]

Here is the Keystone Lakeside logo-

[Bus]

Papaw,
Actually that the logo for Lakeview Forge Co. not Lakeside. They are still in business.

http://lakeviewforge.com/

When I started the Wrenching News Wrench Logo Identification page I found some Lakeview history in an article in Forging Magazine on the web. It's doesn't seem to be available now.

http://www.wrenchingnews.com/wrench-logos/logos-page-1.html

I have it saved as a .pdf file here:

http://www.wrenchingnews.com/web-misc/Lakeview-Forge-History.pdf

[Papaw]

Sorry, Bus, I've made that same mistake before. I saw the keystone and read what my mind said it wanted me to read.

[eddie hudson]

Sorry, Bus, I've made that same mistake before. I saw the keystone and read what my mind said it wanted me to read.

Don't feel bad, I made the very same mistake up until right now. I just changed the name on my inventory sheet.

[rusty]

Hmm, but there must be more to this story...

This is from an ad in Maintainance of way, 1921, for
the Lakeside Forge Co, Erie,PA

(Also shown are track wrenches, S wrenches)

http://books.google.com/books?id=lLApAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA733&dq=%22lakeside+forge%22&hl=en&ei=OP_9TbTzFYHqgAelqJneCw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CC0Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%22lakeside%20forge%22&f=false

[Papaw]

Look at this as shown on http://home.comcast.net/~alloy-artifacts/other-makers-p2.html Alloy Artifacts. Is the difference in the L, or some other characteristic?