Name that old tool (2023 Update)

Here's one I just picked up:

members.aol.com/gto69ra4/Photos/whatsit.jpg

It's about 10" long, says "Hooben--Taunton MA" on the side. The horseshoe-shaped end is sort of hollow. The other looks like a cold chisel.

GTO(John)

Reply to
GTO69RA4
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So it's not a flathead screwdriver with an unusal handle?

Tim

-- "I've got more trophies than Wayne Gretsky and the Pope combined!" - Homer Simpson Website @

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Reply to
Tim Williams

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That's unusual looking. Can a flat bar pass thru the top at an angle, where the rectangular hole is seen on the nearest side? Can a square bar (or some other gizmo) fit in the other hole on the top side?

WB .......................

Reply to
Wild Bill

its a henway.

Gunner

That rifle hanging on the wall of the working-class flat or labourer's cottage is the symbol of democracy. It is our job to see that it stays there. - George Orwell

Reply to
Gunner

Yeah, Yeah...about 5 pounds.

Ron Thompson On the Beautiful Florida Space Coast, right beside the Kennedy Space Center, USA

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The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools.

--Herbert Spencer, English Philosopher (1820-1903)

Reply to
Ron Thompson

OldFella?

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Sometimes in a workplace you find snot on the wall of the toilet cubicles. You feel "What sort of twisted child would do this?"....the internet seems full of them. It's very sad

Reply to
Old Nick

Caulking iron?

Gary Brady Austin, TX

Reply to
Gary Brady

Some old fire hydrants had caps with a pair of short radial pins on the OD rather than the typical pentagonal nut. Your tool looks like a mini version of the wrench for removing those caps -- a pin spanner where the pin is on the part rather than on the wrench. Maybe the chisel end is a free added feature to the tool's primary function?

Ned Simmons

Reply to
Ned Simmons

On Sat, 12 Jun 2004 07:27:54 GMT, Gunner calmly ranted:

Nah, this is a henway:

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That looks like an old gas pipe valve turner offer thingy. The proverbial utility valve wrench, as it were.

P.S: I can say with total veracity that it is neither a kanutin valve wrench nor a twin valve duster adjuster.

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Reply to
Larry Jaques

Good guess. I was going to say that the square/diamond shaped hole through the large end would be about right for working the valve at the top of a hydrant, and that the radiussed side of the large end may be a hose wrench for doing up the pins on fire hose connections.

Jim

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Reply to
jim rozen

Damn. That was gonna be my next guess!

:^)

Jim

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Reply to
jim rozen

I think it's a forged metal wouf hong, for use on certain personal items where the traditional wooden one might not be strong enough to do the job. (hi)

Jeff

Reply to
Jeff Wisnia

I think you may be closer. My memory on this goes back to my college summer job working for the public works department in my home town. We used old fire hose for the discharge on the big Mudhen (not henway) diaphragm pumps when pumping out trenches, etc. They did indeed have the pin type fittings, like this...

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I think this style is more common these days...

Ned Simmons

Reply to
Ned Simmons

Nope..THIS is a henway.

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That rifle hanging on the wall of the working-class flat or labourer's cottage is the symbol of democracy. It is our job to see that it stays there. - George Orwell

Reply to
Gunner

On Sat, 12 Jun 2004 15:48:23 GMT, Gunner calmly ranted:

'Twas a dastardly deed, dude! Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh!

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Reply to
Larry Jaques

Just a quick question (after reading other posts to date)

*Why* would you get something like this, not knowing what it's for, not knowing its value, and obviously not having a *use* for it? To each his own, I guess, but I got *way* too much stuff now and I would walk right past something like this..... Ken.
Reply to
Ken Sterling

Nothing ventured, nothing gained? Looked interesting to me, I'm the curious type. I wouldn't try this with old boats or factory machinery, but a 10" wrench isn't much of an imposition on my space. The human thrist for exploration and discovery, or something.

This isn't one of them, but weird stuff has followed me home in the past and proved its worth. Like when I got $950 for a box of old dental tools I got from someone who was tossing it.

GTO(John)

Reply to
GTO69RA4

Ya see, there ya go... I have the opposite "luck"... It would have cost me $950 to get rid of a box of old dental tools ... Ken. (who also has a certain amount of oddball stuff follow him home)

Reply to
Ken Sterling

At a flea market I would have given a couple of bucks for it. Just hang it on the pegboard so everyone that come into the shop wonder "what the hell it that"

BTW: I think the hydrant wrench is the right answer. Check out this sight. They say send them a picture and they will identify a hydrant. Maybe they would also recognize the wrench.

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Reply to
Stephen

that is a fireman's tool invented by my Great grandfather. it could open a hydrant and pry things

Reply to
kmocker@comcast.net

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