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Dezi

Dezi

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Hi,

On another thread the question was asked “what’s in your tool bag”?
Well in my toolbox is this.
The questions are.. How old is it?
Who made it?
What for?
Where?
I will give you a clue. It was elderly when Ole Arfur started his apprenticeship.

Dezi
 
Was it a spanner for extracting threepenny bits out of Ole Arthurs grip at the bar?
 
Old tools

Hi Dezi,

I have some of these, 1,Adjustable spanner,I have one called King Dick,and one the same that was my dads ( He worked for the De Havalands aircraft factory in Hatfield). but no name on it. 2, Imperial tape measure could be made by Stanley from the 1960-70s

Snowbirds.




Dezi said:
Hi,

On another thread the question was asked “what’s in your tool bag”?
Well in my toolbox is this.
The questions are.. How old is it?
Who made it?
What for?
Where?
I will give you a clue. It was elderly when Ole Arfur started his apprenticeship.

Dezi
Click to expand...
 
It's a wee adjustable spanner :)

Date, hmmm 1920's ??

....I hasten to add that the date I guessed was based on the one I have, not Ole Arfurs age!! :scared:
 
...unless theres a date on it it could be anywhere from 20's to 50's weve still got a couple somewhere...not been used for at least 40 years.... will end up at the boot sale or in the scrap bin eventually
 
If it was elderly when Old Arthur was an apprentice then it must be Roman. :raofl:

It may not have been manufactured by a Company. My wifes Uncle was a Pattern Maker (worked in wood, for the uninformed) but he made a lot of his own tools in metal. ie Inside and Outside Calipers, Inside Micrometer, Centre Finder etc.
 
I remember these as clumsy,hard to adjust,not very good adjustable spanners that didn't fit in many places. I have very few tools from 30-40 years ago,mainly because modern tools are better or some older tools became obsolete. I have a couple of American Stanley sliding bevels and a couple of planes,odd chisels that's about all
 
Stanley pump action ratchet screwdiver. had it 30 years, marvellous! Still use a drill/driver for work though!
 
They were usually made by a firm called footprint !! We did have to make one in our first 3mths in the training centre by hand,hacksaw, file and drilling machine only !! About 7hrs a day stood at a vice and there was no messin about them days.it was also a 1hr bike ride each way to the central workshops that was for 6 months !! Gud owd days eh lol
 
Robmac, it would take a crowbar (large one) to get money out of his grubby little fist.

Snowbirds, well done it is a King Dick.

Wind Dancer, I cannot fault your logic, but it’s older.

Ricc, they have sold for £ 50.00

Mainwaring, I like your thinking, but it’s not Roman.

N Brown, not a bit clumsy, a nice little tool.

Oi Old Un , unfortunately I do not have a violin about my person so cannot chip in with a musical dirge to add this heart wrenching tale.

It is a King Dick adjustable, made at Tyseley. This one dates from pre 1916 & after 1914 (precise date) why?

It is also not unreasonable to speculate that without this spanner, Dezi might not be here.

On that depressing note I shall wait for a few more replies.

Dezi :cheers:
 
years ago I flew to Bordeaux to do a job,and my bag set off the alarm.surrounded by French coppers with nasty little machine guns I watched the Douane gingerly reach into the bag and pull out--my big yankee screwdriver! without a bit in it I suppose it did have a kind of 9mm look about the end. the douane says allo allo what's this ? as I was saying ''screwdriver'',i helpfully leaned over and released the ratchet.
I still shudder when I hear a gun being cocked- possibly the most stupid thing I've ever done ! almost worth it when I recall that custom guy's reaction when the end shot out-sheer terror !
 
King dick

Hi Dezi,

I got one of them right not bad for an old git:bow::lol-053:,I still have two drawed boxes of my dads tools from his days at De Havilland's I must dig them out and post some pics for the oldies (during the war).What about the tape or must I try again.

Snowbirds.




Dezi said:
Robmac, it would take a crowbar (large one) to get money out of his grubby little fist.

Snowbirds, well done it is a King Dick.

Wind Dancer, I cannot fault your logic, but it’s older.

Ricc, they have sold for £ 50.00

Mainwaring, I like your thinking, but it’s not Roman.

N Brown, not a bit clumsy, a nice little tool.

Oi Old Un , unfortunately I do not have a violin about my person so cannot chip in with a musical dirge to add this heart wrenching tale.

It is a King Dick adjustable, made at Tyseley. This one dates from pre 1916 & after 1914 (precise date) why?

It is also not unreasonable to speculate that without this spanner, Dezi might not be here.

On that depressing note I shall wait for a few more replies.

Dezi :cheers:
Click to expand...
 
Dezi said:
It is a King Dick adjustable, made at Tyseley. This one dates from pre 1916 & after 1914 (precise date) why?

It is also not unreasonable to speculate that without this spanner, Dezi might not be here.

On that depressing note I shall wait for a few more replies.

Dezi :cheers:
Click to expand...


its was issued to your forebears who was in a corps that was only active from 1914 -1916 such as the Dover RNVR Anti-Aircraft Corps 1914-1916 and that without this spanner the equipment required to save the nation would not have been in working condition.
or it was in a pocket when a bullet hit it
 
remember these well, they were old when I became an apprentice mechanic in 1961, I used them mostly for the pigtail nut on points or contact sets, made by king dick, footprint, and elora and probably more, in various sizes
 
When I was a kid, we used to call it a "screw-hammer".

I've never heard it called that by anyone else, so I assumed that my dad had made the name up, and to be honest, we used it as a hammer as much as an adjustable spanner!

On seeing this thread, the name came back to me, and I did a quick search on the internet. I found that the name "screw-hammer" was used for it way back in the 1800's, and they were then popular with cyclists who liked to re-adjust their nuts after every few miles :eek:

If you click on this link, and scroll half way down the page, you'll see an old 1890's sketch of a cyclist using one to fix his bike. It's from a HG Wells' novel called "The Wheels of Chance", and a few paragraphs below the picture, he refers to the spanner several times as a "screw-hammer"!

» Mechanical Cogitations The Online Bicycle Museum

I always thought that they were meant for industrial and/or military use, but maybe they were just one of the earliest types of general DIY adjustable spanners? I think I've still got one in my shed somewhere, although I haven't seen it for a few years! :)
 
Bit off topic but did you know that Baby boxes [ Plastic boxes used to store bits and bobs needed to service a baby LOL such as powder ,vaseline, nappy pins ,shampoo, soap etc. } make great tool boxes, they are light ,some have a shelf thing to store smaller tools and screws . I have been buying them from Car Boot sales for between 50 p and a pound.Throw that big heavy metal box away and get the plastic light weight one.
 
Very good Gents, almost pinned it down.

It is a King Dick adjustable spanner made between 1890 & about 1930 at the Abingdon works, Tyseley .

This particular type, small & lightweight came in the toolkit of the King Dick motorcycle, just before WW1.

Grandad got into WW1 by the back door, he was a miner who became Cheshire bantam.

Although machine guns were used in the trenches, It was not until 1915 that the war office sanctioned The Machine Gun Corps - damned unsporting doncha know !

This spanner came supplied with granddads machine gun, probably because it was small & lightweight ideal for the trenches.

Now its in my toolbox.
Dezi
 
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