Civil War period doe.

[rusty]

Not helpful, but, I remember coming across that pattern somewhere, and assuming it was a textile wrench. Later I read something somewhere that made me conclude it was NOT a textile wrench, but was a machine wrench. Sorry, been too long....don't remember where I saw it...

It *is* for hex bolts who, it has a curved back cut...

PS: You got me distracted for hours with Henry...LOL

[Branson]

Yes, for hex nuts.  I'll have to check the nuts on the howitzer, though the nuts on the forge are all hex.  I found a friend may have drawings of army issue open end wrenches from before or during the Civil War. 

[anglesmith]

 Branson, That is a interesting "modern looking" wrench,to me it is not the angle but the offsett that makes it unusual. All the hand forged wrought iron wrenches I either own or have seen have been made from three pieces, with the "grain" of the wrought iron running around the U (necessary as wrought is weak if cut or split along the grain) and the grain running straight along the the handle (usually S shaped handle)  There being a fire weld directly in line with the bottom of the U. Straight handled wrought iron wrenches are uncommon if not even rare and I don't think I've seen one angled? I think it would be very difficult and messy to scarf and fire weld that wrench together in that offsett postion!? To me that means that this wrench is either cast (doesn't look cast) or made in one piece from steel? Either by hand or in a factory or by Henry Burden's so far mythical wrench forging Machine!! It is very difficult to make  judgements from a photo, I guess both you and I would like to "handle" that wrench! I must say that it looks to be around the right size to handle the bolts/nuts in your forging kit.
Graeme



Correction and clarification

[Branson]

Right dinkum I want to handle that wrench!  The more I think about it, the more I am convinced that these were not blacksmith made.  The original drawings of all artillery used by the army were made in 1848 so that all the equipment could be standardized.  Alfred Mordecai also made measured drawings of very many of the tools used in the armories and depots as well as in the field.  There would have been over 600,000 of the wrench I'm looking for just for issue to mountain howitzer crews (one for every mountain howitzer produced).   Since they fit standard sized nuts, they were almost certainly issued to other workers involved with artillery manufacture and repair.  Manufacturers were obviously capable mass production of much more complex tools -- consider the Coes and Merrick screw wrenches.  Why wouldn't they mass produce open end wrenches by the thousands? 

Buried somewhere in the Quartermaster General records there are probably invoices for these wrenches as well as the answers to other mysteries (like who churned out the hundreds of thousands of standardized nuts for these wrenches to turn?).

Yeah, the offset is something I've never seen before.  I notice that one end has been beaten with a hammer to get off a hard nut, too.

This strikes me as a very early example of ignoring wrenches as just being the common, unremarkable tools of mechanics -- the "heart of darkness" of early wrench history.

[Branson]

Well, I still want to get my hands on the wrench in the picture or one like it -- it's almost certainly CW vintage.  But today, pouring over the drawings, I found a top view of the wrench -- only what you could see looking down in the tool chest at a wrench in its slot against the right hand side.  If the drawings are correct, the jaws of these wrenches are parallel to the handle, not angled at all.  All I can make out in the drawing is that it is 5/16 thick, and the end I can see has a 1 1/2 inch opening.

[johnsironsanctuary]

Don't know if it will help, but I found this guy with lots of books on the civil war cannons.


http://www.ebay.com/itm/Cannon-Blasts-Civil-War-Artillery-Eastern-Armies-Union-Confederacy-NEW-/370786854881?pt=US_Nonfiction_Book&hash=item56549e67e1

[Branson]

Thanks for the heads up on the book.  Alas, it talks a lot about cannons, but near nothing on who maintained them with what tools.