3/4" OE spike wrench?

[oldtools]

Found this 3/4" OE with spike 11 1/4" long.
904A, "<W>" USA. HARDENED XT. marking...

[OilyRascal]

I always heard them called structure wrenches.  I saw them used with assembly/disassemble of metal oil well derricks, metal buildings, piping alignment,.....and thing where two pieces of metal are coming together with holes to pilot.

[rusty]

Spud wrench. The pointy part gets stuck through the 2 holes you are putting a bolt through, say, two I-beams on a bridge, to line them up, then you put in the bolt and tighten it with the wrench, one tool, two jobs. (You don't want to stick your fingers in the holes between two half ton I beams)

Used for steel building work and some railroad stuff also....

(Oily beat me to it ;P)

[Aunt Phil]

a/k/a Tail Wrench

Most commonly used by Connectors hanging steel.  The connector gets 2 bolts in and moves to the next piece of steel so bolters can fill all the holes in the joint with bolts.

Connectors are real easy to identify.  Thy are the only Ironworkers on a rig not mandated by OSHAto be tied off.

Hide the miserable sumbeach before somebody makes you use it!

[oldtools]

Logo <W> = Williams [J.H. Williams & Co.]?
anyone know the approx. year based on; 904A, "<W>" USA. HARDENED XT. marking?
or is this just a common wrench?

[Branson]

a/k/a Tail Wrench
Hide the miserable sumbeach before somebody makes you use it!

Don't hide tit too quickly -- iron workers collect these things, though I understand that Williams aren't the most collectible.

[rusty]

>Logo <W> = Williams [J.H. Williams & Co.]?
>anyone know the approx. year based on; 904A, "<W>" USA. HARDENED XT.

Very very hard to date without the script/full logo, anywhere from 20's to last week.

904A is a standard ISN, Billings and others used it also. I don't know when Williams stopped using ISN's on spuds and went to natural sizes...after the war at least, as they still list that series in the mid 40's

I was thinking the stamped <W> was later, early wrenches almost always have raised version, but looking at AA they did occasionally cheap out and stamp it, even as far back is '15...so....

'HARDENED' may be the only rough clue, it is a non-alloy tool (from the 9xx number,), so apparently it was important enough to stamp the fact that it had been hardened on it....might be a catalog reference to that fact somewhere..

[oldtools]

Thank you for the replies, very informative...
added another tool to my OldTools toolbox.

[Billman49]

Known as a podger's spanner in the UK, or just a podger...

[lauver]

Known as a podger's spanner in the UK, or just a podger...

Billman,

What or who is a podger?  Never seen this word before...

[oldtools]

Thank you Billman, looked it up; "podger is a tool in the form of a short bar, usually tapered and often incorporating a wrench at one end.
 
Podgers are used for erecting scaffolding and steel scenery. The pointed end will align the bolt holes while the other end with its reversible ratchet socket will tighten the nuts. Each podger fits two sizes and, as there is a clear hole right through the head, the spanner can be slid down studding or over long bolts without grounding."

[Billman49]

Thanks for looking it up... I can't get to my OED to look up the origins... but I would guess an alternative spelling of potcher if that helps... (potcher is also an alternative dialect word for poacher) - are we any further forward?? Podger and Potcher are both English surnames - which came first???? Having left you in a sort of etymological statis, I'll try a little harder when I get back from a month of billhook chasing in France..

[Branson]

My OED was close at hand, so I checked it out.  Not a lot of help, actually.  Podger is defined as "a stiff blow" (citation from 1816).  Podge has two entries. 

1) "anything podgy; spec. a short, fat man or woman, a short, stout, thick-set animal."  Citation, 1833 (of an epaulette)  "That man with the podge on his shoulder..." (of a first lieutenant)

2) "to walk slowly and heavily."

Podgy is defined as  "anything short, thick, and fat; squat."

So I suppose we are left with the understanding that this is a stout, thick, heavy wrench.

[Lostmind]

I heard them refered to as Steeljack wrench around here.

[lauver]

So podger = spud?