Day 46, Two More Adjustable Bicycle Wrenches
Today's installment features a pair of antique adjustable bicycle wrenches.
Unlike the simpler wrench featured earlier,, these wrenches
are a bit larger: about six and seven inches long, respectively. The style is rather old fashioned. In the
UK, these were manufactured by King Dick tools in Birmingham, so I tend to think of this style as "King Dick wrenches",
but neither of these were manufactured by King Dick Tools.
The first of these is Billings and Spencer Company wrench, stamped with a model E.
According to this far more knowledgeable webpage it is likely that this wrench was made sometime between 1915 and 1926, making it about 100 years old. C.E. Billings has a patent on this kind of wrench dating back to 1879.
The second wrench is a 6" model, stamped "SHELLEY", which was a British manufacturer who supplied wrenches used in cars and motorcycles.
I believe that Shelley refers to the company of R.T. Shelley, which was founded in Birmingham in or around 1908. Shelley manufactured a variety of wrenches and tools and supplied them to many British auto and motorcycle manufacturers. My limited research indicates that they bought out The Norton Company in 1908, and in (it's not clear to me) existed as a subsidiary of Norton, although it sounds like Shelley acquired Norton. Perhaps some body more knowledgeable of British motor history could let me know if I've got the details wrong. My best guess is that it's of similar age to the Billings and Spencer.
Both wrenches came to me in wretched shape, and served as some of my early experiments in tool restoration. I used electrolysis to get rid of the rust, but as you can clearly see, there is still quite a bit of pitting on both wrenches, especially the Billings. That being said, there is effectively no remaining rust, and after oiling them they both work quite well.
Happy Thursday, all!