Press On

People inquire about the availability of dad and mom's "Antique and Unusual Wrenches", by Schulz's. The book evolved out of earlier books by MarvinWullweber . It took three years to compile and produce, and first came to market in late 1989. Some minor revisions and additions were made for the second printing in 1992 and all later printings. Mom kept it in print for a few years after dad died in 1996, but finally let it go out of print.

I get asked about the "wrench book" every now and then. I prepared a slide presentation for the 2008 Fall MVWC meeting tracing the history of wrench books beginning with Marvin Wullweber's efforts in the late 1970s. A substantial portion of the presentation described how Wullweber and dad and mom compiled their books, and how the content and presentation style evolved.

I noted how technology has added new options since the books were produced. We now have various internet resources, including DATAMP and web sites produced by individual old wrench enthusiasts. But technology has not made print obsolete, and people are still looking for a "wrench book."

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"On demand" publishers like Blurb.com may be a viable option. Using a photo sharing site like FLICKR to assemble and arrange wrench pictures with descriptive text, sort them into categories, and have the whole thing open for review and comment before locking the result into print could be a way to evolve a next generation "wrench book."