the.com/crescent wrench
An adjustable jaw that promises a perfect fit and delivers a stripped bolt instead.
means A hand tool with one fixed and one adjustable jaw, worked by a worm-screw thumbwheel, that grips nuts and bolts of varying sizes instead of a single fixed one.
from The name comes from the crescent-shaped (curved) cutout or logo associated with early American-made versions, most famously the Crescent Tool Company of Jamestown, New York, which began producing adjustable wrenches in the early 1900s — the brand name became generic, the way 'Kleenex' or 'Band-Aid' did, so that nearly any adjustable wrench gets called a crescent wrench regardless of maker.
- actually swedish
- invented by Johan Petter Johansson, not named Crescent, in 1892
- name origin
- popularized by the Crescent Tool Company brand, now generic
- mechanic's insult
- called a knuckle-buster for slipping off stubborn nuts
- worm gear
- a screw mechanism moves the jaw, no springs involved