New Crescent Wrench
- Thread starterAnvilx
- Start date
mmmmm, antique monkey wrench.
last125eagle
Member
Hmm that looks older than my Stilson wrenches lol.
Dionysus
Well-Known Member
In an age where CNC machinery and CAD technology are as everyday as white bread, it's easy for our generation to think engineers and craftsmen of yesteryear maybe weren't as 'sharp' as we are today. When I see the inner workings of a 17th century flintlock in a magazine (yeah, I get these types of magazines at my home) it reminds me how meticulous the designer as well as the builder must certainly had to have been.
Fast forward to 1830, and a young man carving a chunk of wood with a pocketknife-
<The Colt revolving-cylinder concept is said to have occurred to Sam Colt while serving as a seaman aboard the sailing ship Corvo. There he observed a similar principle in the workings of the ship's capstan. During his leisure hours, Sam carved a wooden representation of his idea. The principle was remarkable in its simplicity and its applicability to both longarms and sidearms. > Colt Law Enforcement
The smith that built the cool old monkey wrench was using old-timey tools that were built by an older tool that was built with... you get the picture. There were some pretty sharp minds in those days, and I salute the men and women that made our lives SO much easier today!
Fast forward to 1830, and a young man carving a chunk of wood with a pocketknife-
<The Colt revolving-cylinder concept is said to have occurred to Sam Colt while serving as a seaman aboard the sailing ship Corvo. There he observed a similar principle in the workings of the ship's capstan. During his leisure hours, Sam carved a wooden representation of his idea. The principle was remarkable in its simplicity and its applicability to both longarms and sidearms. > Colt Law Enforcement
The smith that built the cool old monkey wrench was using old-timey tools that were built by an older tool that was built with... you get the picture. There were some pretty sharp minds in those days, and I salute the men and women that made our lives SO much easier today!
Anvilx
Active Member
Ironically a lot of this stuff was made far better then stuff is made today.
(Though on the other hand it may be that the only stuff we see from by gone days is the stuff that was made well and everything else just deteriorated.)
I agree, hats of to the creators and makers of past.
shiben
Well-Known Member
To be fair, a lot of the stuff that we use today would never be possible without CNC and CADD. Imagine hand-grinding lenses for Source 4s (or building the body). Also, for those of you interested in weapons, CNC made modern guns possible. I respect engineers of whenever time they existed, who utilize the best technology available. I dont really respect people who can make anything on a plastic printer (although its great for props). The inner working of a M82 (.50 cal sniper rifle) nowdays is just as impressive as a 17th century flintlock, its just that the technology to make a firing pin that is accurate to the point that you put it in a different riffle it does not work was never possible without CADD and CNC machining, all different ages and technologies. Crazy cool though, the wrench really impresses me as an elegant piece of work. Its simple, beutiful (for those of you who find this stuff like that), works well, and seems to be effective. The one thing that I question about the wrench is the adjustment knob, the cuts on it look to be something made on a modern lathe, although my knowlage of older machining practices are low.... Overall a really cool find though...
Anvilx, you have a decent point about the deterioration, but remember there were no mass produced things until the industrial revolution, and even then, when you build something out of Iron instead of plastic, it lasts longer and requires a lot more work.
The cross-hatch pattern is the result of applying a knurling tool to the workpiece at low rpm. The technique has been around for quite a while. Here is a quick and easy demo-
Google Image Result for http://www.technologystudent.com/images2/knurl3.gif
shiben
Well-Known Member
Cool. I learned something new today.
Part of the reason for this is that the science behind the manufacturing has improved so much. Until fairly recently, engineering was empirical: you built something, and if it fell down or broke, you rebuilt it, beefing up whatever broke before. And if the second version fell down or broke, you tried again. Once you get a sense for what it takes for something to not fall down or break in a given application, you can kind of extrapolate so that if you need to build something bigger or stronger, you know about how much more you need to beef it up. The end result of a couple of centuries of this type of engineering is that things tend to be seriously overbuilt to be sure that it wouldn't break or fall down.
Nowadays, though, we have a much more complete, nuanced understanding of structures and materials and mechanics, so we can calculate exactly what it takes to make something that won't break or fall down under expected use. So we tend not to overbuild stuff 'just to be on the safe side'. The downside of this is that things don't last as long since the reliability envelope is much closer to the expected use envelope, and fail more frequently because no process is perfect and sometimes the margin of error crosses into the expected use, but the upside is that the end product is much cheaper, especially for mass-produced products. But most importantly, modern engineering is more reliable: since we have more complete science behind it, we can more accurately predict the behavior of systems and materials in given conditions.
Anvilx
Active Member
Just because we understand it doesn't mean it is better. When I buy something with my money I want it to work, way past when the warranty expires. I don't care if it is cheap if I have to go and replace it with another one, that's my time, energy, and money. Plus where does the old item often end up - the landfill. Let me ask you this why is it that I went shopping for antique tools last weekend? No not because I like old things. I went because I wanted a hand plane that wasn't a piece of junk. If we are so gosh darn sophisticated with our science and knowledge then why are Lee Nielsen planes copies of the old Stanley plan? Wouldn't they know exactly how to build the perfect plane? Why are they copies, because they work and still do. At the same show my dad bought a Stanley #6 from ~1915 and guess what it still works!
I have a feeling that at the end of the day the consumer loses.
