Interesting ratchet wrench!

[DiscoDan]

I was at the Coolspring engine show in Pennsylvania a few weekends ago. Walking through the show I found this wrench for sale and I'm a sucker for unique wrench designs. This has got to be the most simplistic ratchet wrench I've ever seen. The end of the round bar that disappears into the ratchet head engages with notches around the outer edge. Think of it almost as a water wheel. It is about 5 inches long and the round bar is 3/16".

It is marked patent pending and I'm wondering how you would even go about trying to research a patent on something like this. Does anyone have any ideas on where to start?

 

[RJSakowski]

The US patent office (USPTO) does offer on-line searches for patents. https://ppubs.uspto.gov/pubwebapp/static/pages/landing.html

Unfortunately, older patents are not converted to searchable documents so you have to have a patent number or a good description of the device to be able to find a patent. This usually means reading through the list of titles of patents granted year by year. A good activity for a cold winter day when you are bored out of your skull.

One tactic that I use is to view the patents cited in a newer patent and if one looks like a fit, viewing that patent. Then reiterate the process to get back to the original patent of the concept.

 

[D.sebens]

I was thinking that hand tool rescue did a video on this style wrench but I could be wrong

 

[GeneT45]

Once you have a patent number, pat2pdf is a great resource.

A lesson I've learned from patents is that they're often intentonally misleading. The feature being patented is well presented, but some misinformation is included outside those features. This seems to be de rigeur for patent drawings. Caveat Videntium...

GsT

 

[D.sebens]

Here’s the link to the hand tool rescue video. I’m pretty sure he talks about the patent.