EXTRA Jaw 25¢

 
It's obvious that it's a sort of adjustable "wrench" or pliers, not really a "Crescent wrench" and not really "Vice Grips"
The bottom jaw is plain, the top has angled serrations.

So it's truly over 100 years old and it has been used - by the wear on the jaws..

http://alloy-artifacts.org/other-makers.html#elgin" rel="nofollow - http://alloy-artifacts.org/other-makers.html#elgin

It just happens to be in the photo instead of taking two photos.

Would be nice to know about the Ford wrench but it's not related to the Elgin wrench.

Water pumps used to have a packing nut - there was a treated packing, leather or rope, etc. and it was behind a nut with a shoulder which the shaft went through. 

As the packing wore and the pump started to leak around the shaft, you used water pump pliers to tighten the packing nut.

Again they are like channel lock pliers - the two jaws stay PARALLEL as you adjust them so the pliers jaws hit the two opposite sides of the water pump packing nut evenly, more like an adjustable wrench (what you'd call a Crescent Wrench which is a NAME BRAND).

Look at "channel lock" pliers - they can adjust to a great extent and the jaws can stay parallel to the sides of a packing nut, small or large, to snug up the packing and keep the pump from leaking..
The water pump pliers date back to very early cars with water pumps.
I collected and restored antique engines, tractors, etc. and worked on cars of ALL ages years ago.

Whatever that Elgin tool was sold for wasn't water pumps - not near big enough and the jaws do NOT stay parallel and they are more to wedge and grab than sit on the sides of a packing nut. Too small, not designed to get into the pump shaft packing nut and away from fan blades.

could always get ahold of TIM the TOOL man Taylor and ask ..... he would know

so it's obviously a type of hammer 

https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/" rel="nofollow - https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/

^is a great place to ask about any unusual tools you come across if you don't get the answers here. 

Tom

I've read about the bicycle tool rumors, too - and enough folks cast serious doubt on that, along with what I know about bikes back then, I suspect it was a thing that either got spread and took on life, or someone did use it for their bike back then and hated doing so.

First, seriously, take off the grip each time?
Ya, right - those often were next to impossible to take off, and to have to remove the grip to get the tool off the handle bar?

No, like so many other tools, that hole likely has nothing to do with hanging on a handle bar of a bike and was more likely part of the design, pure and simple, or the manufacturing process, or have some other possible use. 

For one thing, it's pocket size.......... also why have it swinging hanging on a handle bar only to wear the finish off the handle bar.

I would bet the use on bikes was something that was mentioned by someone way back - on the web, and simply got copied around.

could be wrong - but the support for it being a bike tool is thin at best. Seriously? - remove a grip to get the tool off the handle bar? Right.
And if like many bicycle owners 100 years ago, you likely had a horn or bell clamped onto the handle bars......... 

The Ford wrench has an interesting shape to the end of the handle - it's not rounded at the end like expected, it's got a square end at the end of the handle. 

That wrench is in EXCELLENT shape, a lot of black color left on it. 

If I recall correctly, Dad had it in the house all these years inside a tool box stuck in the bottom of a hall closet, rarely dragged out and used. 

I grabbed the tool box because it had his plane and a few other tools I recall from childhood that I watched him use - - the large wood handle on the plane was broken and taped but I removed the tape and goo and used good glue to put it back together and refinished it a bit and the plane is like new other than seeing that crack in the wood handle I fixed. 

The bottom one is an Elgin adjustable alligator wrench produced into the late 1920's.

Nice pieces.

The bottom does have the serrated jaw and is adjustable but does not have an open/lock function like a vise grip. It's specific use is unknown to me. It may grip pipe or something soft if pushed on but it would not have the holding power of a pipe wrench. 

Who knew that 32 years in the trade that all the trades people/instructors I worked with were wrong. Mind you most were British so maybe there is a royal difference???

My apologies!

LBS TO

170

is what it says on the end.

I'd have thought the left end would have given it away! That part is much like the modern version of this tool. (but modern versions don't start at 30 and go up to 170!)

Now what interests me, besides the range, is the name of the company that made it -
A. Schrader's Son, Inc.

Not "Schrader, Son and Company", not Schrader and company, not Schrader, Sons and Company, but "A. Schrader's Son, Inc."

Obviously, A. Schrader's son had a company and made this.....

By the way, found another Ford script wrench, a used open end wrench. I say used because one end was used on a TIGHT bolt or nut and is stretched a tad, but it's definitely a Ford script wrench.
I have a bucket of old wrenches Dad gave me years ago I need to go through!