How Close to Now Does OLD Extend?

The first issue of the Missouri Valley Wrench Club Newsletter in June, 1982 noted the recent closing of Leverage Tools of Glenvil, Nebraska -- the company had been bought out by Stanley.

LEVERAGE TOOLS self-adjusting locking pliers, clamps, etc. are now collectibles.

One of the newer pieces in the Richard Carter auction inventory was a set of ratchet-action open end wrenches patented in 1957. The set appeared to have been produced in the 1960s.

The upcoming Don Ervin sale includes a Vise-Grip TOOLKIT combination tool that's probably 10 - 15 years old.

Obscurity

The history of the interesting and collectible tools is filled with false starts, ambition over-reaching ability to deliver, and many other factors resulting in scarcity.

The sale inventory of the Richard Carter collection auction the weekend of Feb. 27th- March 1st had several examples. The Oct. 5, 1880 Genry A. Chapman patent combination wrench and pipe cutter looked hand-made.

The "smalls" included a 4-inch combination "crescent" type adjustable wrench with an alligator wrench on the handle end.

Every collection of any significance has a few such oddities.

This blog has taken a back burner to other activities the past few months -- work responsibilities, DATAMP, and the demands of producing the MARCH 2009 MVWC Newsletter. That issue was delivered to the post office this morning & members should be receiving copies some time next week.

Other Facets

A couple of key components of the MVWC web site are reconstructed.
One new piece is evolving. A "wrench only" subset of Recent DATAMP Activity is getting off the ground.

It is meant to have the dual effect of bringing continuous new content to www.mvwc.org, and help promote effective use of the patent research at DATAMP. A tech savvy member of the DATAMP team figured out how to construct an RSS gadget to pull content for the DATAMP Patent Feed page at www.mvwc.org

"Bus" Haury has some Upcoming Wrench Events posted on his Wrenching News web site, including the following:

Missouri Valley Wrench Club Spring Meet and Auction April 2009

The wrenches for the auction to be held in conjunction with The Spring Missouri Valley Wrench Meet to be held in York, Nebraska April 16, 17, & 18 2009 have arrived in Kansas and work on the catalog has began. The auction will consist of wrenches from the collections of Don Ervin of Surrey, Maine and Robert Matz of Cozad, Nebraska. I made two trips to Cozad to pickup Robert's wrenches and Don dropped his off last month. Featured in this auction will be by far the best collection of cutout type wrenches ever offered at an auction sale. Cutout include the "Holy Gail" of cutouts the John Deere TR590 plus a John Bull, Gail G8, W Plow Co, Planet Jr. 312, C&J, double hammer Deere A196, Bradley's Wonder D99 (with two square openings), Casaday, Osborne, IHC 770E, and over thirty others!