A crescent wrench looks a lot like a monkey wrench ; in fact , most of the simple-minded adjustable wrenches you know look like crescent wrenches . A crescent twist is normally made ofsteeland has a relatively flat handle that ’s a number of inches long . At the death of the handle are jaws , one of which is secure and the other of which moves when you turn the worm appurtenance ( or slide adjuster ) powerful below it . On a crescent wrench , the jaw are virtually parallel to the handle . In contrast , a monkey wrench ’s jaws are perpendicular to the handle . A crescent wrench is useful for turning Nut and bolt within a certain chain of size .
However , the full term " crescent twist " is a bit shoddy . A Crescent wrench is a name - brand product that date back to the early 1900s . It became popular enough that hoi polloi set out call in all adjustable wrenches by the name crescent pull . The original Crescent wrench was develop by an inventor from Jamestown , New York , discover Karl Peterson . He reportedly produce the idea from a Swedish visitor who described an adjustable pull to him . Peterson created a wooden version , and then worked to create a metal rendering . Peterson was already advertising a commercial model by 1910 . Cooper Industries purchased the Crescent Tool Company later on on down the line .
Early variant of Crescent wrenches look more or less like today ’s model , but there was also once a double - ended Crescent wrench that is no longer made . That type of Crescent wrench had jaw at both ends – one big and one small . The other major change to Crescent wrenches is that once , all edition had a worm gear , which was kind of like a little bbl you turned to adjust the spanner . Now , many Crescent twist come with a slide gear that lets you adjust the sizing of the spanner ’s possible action by run a skidder up and down .
