Recent Acquisitions

This past friday I was able to take delivery of two of three items I've been waiting a couple months to receive.

My lab assistant's offspring and part-time minion (when she's not in college) was able to procure these two lovelies for me, for only $16 for them both.

The larger of the two (mama) is twelve inches long and the smaller one (junior) is eight inches, they are in remarkably good shape for their age with no rust and the wooden scales intact, though junior's are slightly loose due to the wood shrinking a bit over time and the back of mama's head is well mushroomed on one side due to someone in the past mistaking it for a hammer.

I just wiped the dust off them with a rag, didn't need anything else done to them.

They were discovered in a small antique shop in New York state as a pair of twelve inch and a single eight inch monkey wrenches back in january, unfortunately when they were picked up last week there were only enough funds to cover this pair, but I'm promised the delivery of papa at the end of the school year.

Closer examination of mama revealed her lineage and some idea of her possible age.

The markings are a bit more legible then they appear in the pics, this side reads:

Coes
Wrench Co.
Worcester
Mass.

The opposite side is marked:

L. Coes
PATD
July 6 1880
July 8 1884

Junior is marked only on one side with:

Stronghold
P S & W Co.
USA

No idea of a possible age though...

Now, if memory serves, papa is a match to mama but without being so badly mushroomed on the back of the head, I'll know for sure when it eventually arrives here.

I have plans for all three, once I get started on some real steampunk gear I intend to make a toolbelt styled after a western pistol belt with one of the larger wrenches slung on my hip like a six-shooter and smaller t hand tools taking the place of the cartridges one would usually found lining the rest of the belt.

I also want to try to make a mold of one of them to make lighter prop wrenches for the times when carrying around a real one might be frowned upon.

Or, if nothing else, I can just use them to slap various idiots upside their heads when they invariably piss me off...