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TOOL IDENTIFICATION

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Charles #677556

Senior Member
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I have obtained three "SNAIL" brand open-end
wrenches/spanners.
The size & description of each is as follows:
The small wrench is 1/4W 5/16BS on one end, 3/16W 3/8BS on the other. On the "back side" after the "Made In England" (which all three wrenches have) are two letters "SR". OAL is 5 1/4" long.
The medium wrench is 5/16W 3/8BS on one end and 3/8W7/16BS on the other. The back side has the letters "ENS" or "EN5". OAL is 6 1/2" long.
The large wrench is 3/8W 7/16BS on one end and 1/2W9/16BS on the other. On the back side is "50". OAL is 7 7/8" long.

Can anyone identify what vehicle(s) these wrenches might have been paired with??
 
Hello Charles,
If they are associated with a particular car then it will be a 40's\50's car at a guess. It's a long shot but try 'The Automobile' magazine.
E-Mail brendahart@theautomobile.ndirect.co.uk.
www.oldcar-discoveries.com.

Good luck,
Alec
thirsty.gif
 
...as for dating the wrenchs, maybe someone knows when they stopped putting Whitworth and British-Standard markings on wrenches together (or maybe they still do, I've never seen any like that).
 
Hello Aerog,
I know it is confusing but the W and BS is actually Brtish Standard Whitworth and British Standard Fine, abreviated to W \ BS. Originally both had the same hexagon size, i.e. say 1\4" BSW was the same hexagon size as 1\4" BSF but as a a material saving in WW 2, it was decided to use 1\4" hexagon for 5\16" sizes in BSF so a 1\4" Whit spanner also fits a 5\16" Fine. Both are a Whitworth form thread but W is coarse and BS is fine thread.
As an engineering apprentice I was brought up on Whitworth threads and found the SAE system of across flats as rather strange. Everyone knows a 5\16" bolt don't they?, and then to use a 1\2" spanner on it seemed odd. Now, of course, in the UK everything has gone Metric and I gave up.
Alec
 
<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by aerog:
...as for dating the wrenchs, maybe someone knows when they stopped putting Whitworth and British-Standard markings on wrenches together (or maybe they still do, I've never seen any like that).<hr></blockquote>

Aerog;
Jaguar went to the "Unified" standard (AF-American Fine.. also commonly called SAE) with the production of the E-Types.. The "Tube Wrenches (Box Spanners), as an example, are identical in outward appearance between the XK's and the E-Types.. except the XK's were stamped with "W" (Whitworth) and "BS" (British Standard) sizes and the E-Types, as noted, were stamped with AF sizes as well as the word "Jaguar" in the middle of the tube.
I think Jaguar went to all Metric with the Series II XJ-6.. My '73 XJ-6 Ser I had a mixture of Whitworth and SAE, but the majority of the tool sizes were the SAE.
 
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