Up till this morning this was my favorite adjustable wrench. It’s made by Diamond Tool & Horseshoe, it was a gift from my father in 2006, and though it was pretty worn then it has served me well enough for nine years including a year and a half in a small engine shop. The jaws are beaten to hell and the action is scratchy, but it’s still a better wrench than you’ll see in the average fix-it toolbox. I’ve gotten a lot of use out of it.
This morning I was cleaning up the box of tools my older brother sent me, and all of a sudden the Diamond got demoted to just another tool in the box…
My father was a tradesman back in the day and when I was a boy he had many high quality tools. But he retired almost 40 years ago and things go away. Much of what was in the box was decent mass-market tools no better than what I already have. But a few survived the purge. This Utica Tool adjustable had clearly sat in the box for a while, it needed cleaning and a shot of penetrating oil, but then it remembered who it was. You can work the action on this wrench with your pinky, and it’s smooth like on brand-new $70 wrenches I’ve fondled in welding supply stores. When I was a dealership wrench I never put out for a good adjustable, they’re too bulky for tight places and not as strong as box- or open-end wrenches. But if I had, I’d have wanted one like this. It may not look like much to your eye, but this was the jewel in the Cracker Jack box. 🙂
You are so right. I have some of my father’s and grandfather’s tools, and nothing made today compares. They weren’t professionals, just handy homeowners back in the day. They each could fix or build most anything and had the tools to do it. The tools for sale today usually make me want to weep. Unless people inherit or look for old tools, they will never know the joy of a durable, well made, well balanced tool.
Like you Joel I do appreciate quality when I have encountered it. Today it is sad that good quality high end tools are getting more and more scarce with various brands that were once great devolving into outfits with lousy quality control, poor materials and bad customer service. One of the best bits of advice I was ever given was get the best that you can and when something better comes along, upgrade. The practice of doing this has left me with some pretty damn good tools over the years. The sad thing is that If I had to replace my tools I would go bankrupt.
Joel, my Dad died 2 years ago. He was a professional mechanic almost all his life. I now have tools I don’t deserve. Hell, I’ve got 3 rollaways with top boxes, on top of the (not a few) tools I already had. I need to sell the tools he had for the time he & Ma took a hiatus to be truckers for a few years. Everything else I’m keeping.
Don’t like the cost of the tools, but since he had to go anyway, I’m grateful, & I think of him almost every time I roll open a drawer to fetch a tool.
I know your relationship with your father was different, but it seems he left you a few decent tools.
Way back when I served with someone who was a welder for Diamond Tool and Horseshoe in Duluth Mn. all you had to do was ask her for a “crescent” wrench. She then would announce that it was a Diamond Adjustable NOT a crescent.
But nowadays Apex tool owns both brands.
And no doubt the factory’s in China.