Barcalo Taper Design Wrenches 12 Point Combination Set of 5 1958 - early ‘60s

Barcalo Manufacturing of Buffalo began business in the late 19th Century as a manufacturer of “quality products” which included bed frames and cribs. In the late 1910s Barcalo acquired “Charles E. Hall Company” that made adjustable wrenches and pliers. Over the next decades Barcalo became a well respected maker of wrenches and other mechanics’ tools while also expanding the other side of the business into broader furniture manufacturing. The well-known Barcalounger reclining chair, that appeared on the market in the 1940s, was a household name during the latter half of the 20th Century.

Barcalo was an innovative company and applied many style and function elements to its tools; raised panels, depressed panels, convex handles. The “Taper Design Wrenches” of the late 1950s and early 1960s combined both visual and functional when it replaced Wrench Off-Set by inclining the Box by 15 Degrees (see images) thereby allowing the Handle to remain Straight (see images). One of Barcalo’s advertising contentions for these Taper Design Wrenches claimed a Straight Handle allowed greater control and force compared to tilting the Handle or Off-Setting the Head.

The Barcalo Taper Design was relatively short-lived because Barcalo’s Tool division was acquired by Crescent Niagara in 1963 and Crescent Niagara by Cooper Industries in 1968. The Barcalo name disappeared between 1963 and 1968. Its Taper Design Wrenches were briefly branded as “Crescent” and “Billings Life-Time”. The best guess about when the Wrenches were made is no earlier than 1957 and not long beyond 1963.

Functionally, the Wrenches are in good condition. Visually, not so much (see images). The “polished, mirror-chrome finish” has suffered on some more than on others (see images). There’s no evidence of misuse or abuse; Wrenches are straight and true as designed (see images). As Show-and-Tell pieces they won’t be pretty, but as Working-Tools they’d be right at home.

We will ship the Wrenches by USPS Ground Advantage on the next regular business day following payment.