All About the Stillson Wrench | This Old House
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 20 ต.ค. 2020
- Richard Trethewey learns about one of the most important plumbing inventions: the Stillson wrench.
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One of the most important tools in the plumbing trade was invented over 100 years ago. Richard Trethewey meets Michael Fitzgerald, the enthusiast who uncovered this historical fact. The two meet at a museum that celebrates advances in plumbing, in where else? Watertown, MA.
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All About the Stillson Wrench | This Old House
/ thisoldhouse - แนวปฏิบัติและการใช้ชีวิต
![Largest Pipe Wrench I've Ever Seen [Restoration]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/MQ9AvvrXhaQ/mqdefault.jpg)
I still use my grandfathers 14" Stillson. I'm 61.
I just snagged a 24" Stillson at a yard sale for $10. It's going in my HVAC bag to have another life of usefulness.
More Tool History. Please and Thank You.
A long time ago I was managing a vineyard in NH. A guy came to work for me for a summer. He was the great grandson of Mr. Stillson. Sadly he fell a tree on himself in his back yard and didn't survive. I love those wrenches.
😲
Lol
This is really cool! Like when Richard showed off the Trethewey-branded toilet that was 100 years old or something.
I bet that’s seen a lot of sh1t in its day.
100 years old?!
Our lot used to just make a groove or slot in the castle wall and compose themselves over said groove whilst perched on a timber board with a hole ... wouldn't want to be caught short during a seige tho' ... enemy archer could give you a stereo vent ...
However we discovered the flush WC just a little while ago so now most of us have indoor loos.
So informative, thank you! Richard and the crew are so knowledgeable! I love watching this show on PBS
Didn't realize this museum is literally a mile from where I live. I may be an electrician but know and enjoy the plumbing trade very much.. I will be checking in asap!
I went to the plumbing museum last year with my shop and I’m only 15 so being able to see all the tools that people used when my parents whernt even born yet.
I’m currently restoring my great grandfather’s collection of Stillson and Ridgid pipe wrenches, patent date 1869.
Why interview the expert then talk through him?
Yes. The interviewer was so eager to talk, he would hardly let the other guy finish a sentence. The whole thing had a womanish, rushed aspect. If an interviewer has to watch the clock, then he should solve the problem with editing, not with rushing the actual interview.
Nice video! Learned something new! Richard and the TOH team are doing great.
Great information and wonderful history Thank you for Sharing
love this type of content!
This was a terrific episode! !!!
Thank you for sharing
Hi TOH , thanks for showing us these kind of tools !!! 👍😊🔨🔩🔧
That's my kind of place. Glad someone cares enough to preserve it.
I love the stillson wrench, very useful, very tough
Really good vid. thank you.
The best show in construction
MORE TOOL HISTORY, PLEASE
I'm so happy to discover that my infatuation with wrenches and tool roots is shared by others!
Richard should run this museum. He has more knowledge about the history of those tools than anyone else.
Richard's more interested in using the wrenches for everyday work than mounting on a wall and looking at them.
That’s amazing, we called that a Stilson in Ireland but a pipe wrench in Wisconsin
Dude just pulls the pliers right out of his pocket lol
Concealed carry
Certain breed of men. Just like how Hank Hill pulled out a mini WD-40 when his regular sized WD-40 got stuck.
A journalist who starts every sentence with an extraneous "so?"
I do not understand why people would dislike this video.
I just discovered I have a stillson 10. Pretty neat ☺
Gotta love your “Pipewrench”, specially if it’s made out of aluminum 😅👍
Interesting
Got a bunch of the wood handled style on the wall . Was hoping for some info on those as well . Lol time to do my own research. As Always thank you
that's what actually got me into this video too. I got some a garage sale, best wrenches I've used.
@@theJonnymac I dig the vintage style with the wood inlay handles to think of the hard scrabble bastards using them back in the day puts things in perspective for me sometimes. Be Well ,Brother ✌
I was garbage-picking about 20 years ago and found 8 of those, all dirty and greasy. I cleaned them up and have been using them ever since.
What they fail to fully explain is how one jaw is fixed and the other moves. (besides the adjustment part) This is what makes the wrench bite into the pipe for a firm grip.
Lol I think you guys didn't update the description before posting.
A plumbing museum in Watertown!
Do they still make them? Or are vintage better?
Stillson best pipe wrenches ever made!
TF2 fans when they see a vintage wrench in real life
Thanks! Wish you'd show an actual example of how it was used.
It appears to be nothing more than an OG pipe wrench. Pipe wrenches are pretty self explanatory, and he covered the most important detail with the 3 points of contact. Knowing that, I’m sure if someone handed you some threaded galvanized or black iron pipe and fittings and a pipe wrench, you’d figure it out in a few minutes. They probably weren’t allowed to be actually using these historic items
Can anyone recommend other great channels about tools and building
Anyone know anything about the ATKO brand of tools?
I noticed in the Webster's New World Dictionary that there is an entry for "Stillson Wrench" but not for "Pipe Wrench". I never realized...
How about some history on that Clayton & Lambert plumber's furnace on the bench.
gusty60 , Had one like that 60 years ago to practice lead wiping for my journeymans test. Then I lent it to 2 guys I knew so they could practice . Somewhere along the line it got lost. 👷🏻
A wrench like that saved my life, because it didn't come off a pipe. No joke.
Can you please elaborate?
Saved my knuckles many times!
I always wonderd what that is called
I have my dads who called them Stillison but are made by Record ,bit like circular saws are called Skill saws
Pipe NPT threads are tapered at 3/4 per foot on diameter with is 1.7899 degrees per side. Anyone know who came up with this angle?
Double wave behind it
Well I have been calling them stiltsons for as long as I can remember, oops. I’m in Australia and the ones I have were made here.
I’ve got some laying outside in the dirt, getting rained on. Just a bit of surface rust, and they’re like new still. Some good metal they used to make the wrenches.
This video is wrenching! .. thank you, no I don’t do two shows on Saturdays.
Hey this old house
What
The Stillson pattern predates the Johansson pattern which is an improvement on the design.
Those pipe tongs look a lot like a Swedish pattern pipe wrench.
That’s what it is, never heard it called a tong before lol
Who knew!
I just ordered a 48 inch pipe wrench lol
Tretheway done turned into Bob
Dont call a journalist, a reporter. Lol!!!
One just reads what someone else wrote. One does investigations and looks for dependable/reliable sources then writes up a report, and usually reads it themselves. So yeah I can see the offense taken.
call them useless above all else
No wonder everyone hates the media.
A quick correction from him too.
Echoing Victoria Tennant in Steve Martin's "LA Story."
So, where are all the pipe wrenches going? We’ve been mass producing them for 100 years. I’ve never broken one. How are we not knee deep in wrenches?
i see loads of them in antique shops for ridiculous prices.
They go to Valhalla
👍
I like how they purposely put the monkey wrenches in the thumbnail to trick us.
I have a monkey wrench. Watched the video b/c I thought I would learn something interesting about one of my more unusual tools. Disappointed.
Today it is simply known as a pipe wrench.
And then the Iron Age arrived in the 1800s....
My dad used to threaten me with these all of the time.
He died earlier this year.
Been a good year so far.
Had to LOL . I love my Dad , but ..... we All ,as young men had that thought at some point haha .
And I Am Not Condoning Violence.
Sorry for your loss!! it's funny how the oddest things can trigger a memory.
It was pretty obvious who the subject matter “expert” is ....
Agreed. A man speaking to a boy.
Random thought: they should be sponsored by knife companies and we can see what they all like to EDC. Richard strikes me as a Kershaw or CRKT guy.
@@brianglade848 lobstahs and Kershuaws
“Shut up you. I’m the expert here”
Cool video, but ridgid are better
the pipe wrench definitely doesn't replace the smooth jaw version for working on couplings stuff that has a faces like a nut. The pipe wrench tears those up. but an interesting piece of history.
@@Kevin-mp5of yea it drives me nuts working after people like that
@@Kevin-mp5of 😂😂😂
Thought it was just us! A lot of plumbers and sometimes sparkies use what we call water pump pliers ( Channel?) ... they can fffk up most nuts or soft pipes without trying ... a sort of "round over tool with added burring".
Might be because some of these "craftsmen" have yet to equate a pipe nut with a "fit for purpose" open spanner???
Plus a lot of them forget it's soft copper pipes they are working with and you don't have to hang off the joint to get it tight.
(We've all seen a hot water tank with a soldered flange buckled up or torn out.)
@@Kevin-mp5of 👍
@@Kevin-mp5of the pride exists, I see it in some people I work with. In some cases, though I just see people that were never taught how to use tools in the best way.
*casually handles lead pipe*
Nothing wrong with it... it’s just a little lead
I have so many of these 3” to 24” collection. I use them 2 to 3 times a week only bad thing is the Handel is narrow and will hurt palm ✋ so cheater is necessary love the show and appreciate the information. 29 years in plumbing trade
😎
Cannistraro lol
YO I WENT HERE BEFORE
@@Kevin-mp5of yes
Don't lie to yourself, you're a REPORTER. Rich, Rich, Rich, you know the real secret is to first scrape all the dried plumber's putty out of the teeth.
Oh yes they do slip.
The Stillson Wrench is a name brand pipe wrench is what I always thought.
That's just how peeps recognize some tools. People call an adjustable wrench a Crescent wrench. People call a reciprocating saw a Sawzall.
I love this guy. A real journalist, such a rare breed it seems. I hope he never works for CNN or MSNBC. God bless him.
Every thing not 'made in China' is a good thing, actually.
Crikey! I had no idea they still made all American laptops and smartphones these days.
Well done you lot!
When I was gr
Thanks to the MSM "journalist" isn't any better a label than "reporter". May not ever be able to recover the reputation of that profession.
I think reporter is the more admirable title.
A reporter relays news to people.
A journalist relays their take on news.
A reporter give you the news and the news alone. We need more of that.
You don't know a monkey wrench from a Stillson. And the guy didn't.
same thing, no?
I love this show but I hate when they bring in an “Expert” to explain things and the guys on the show do all the talking and don’t let them talk.
"As the Iron Age came?" Richard, you're an accomplished plumber, but a pathetic historian. The Iron Age began in the second millennium before Christ.
social distancing.. nope face masks nope shaking hands nope.. this old house why are you not doing the mandated things the government and local athrories said to do
I love learning history about tools 🧰 ❤ I’m a tool fanatic.
Would have been nice to let the expert from the museum describe the wrenches.