These old Whitworth wrenches show up now and then in my neck of the woods, with their lovely Snail logo:
They were made by Thomas Smith & Sons of Saltley Ltd., Birmingham. Thomas Smith is said to have chosen the snail as his brand because his motto was, "The snail may be slow, but he gets there in the end."
The firm began in 1848 when it made velocipedes and small hand tools.
In 1896 it was operating out of Saltley Mill in Birmingham. In 1937, in addition to custom drop forgings, they advertised spanners, adjustable wrenches, hammers, and hatchets of all descriptions. Based on the adjustable spanner below, at one time they supplied tools for British Ford tractors and/or cars:
(Note the Snail logo below the Ford script on the image above.)
In the 1959, the factory location was moved from Saltley about 10 miles east to Coleshill. Many of their products (hammers, hatchets, garden tools, spanners (chrome-vanadium & carbon steel) plus their adjustable & pipe wrenches) were exported to India. At some point the company was acquired by the Chillington Corporation, and remained on their books until at least 1992:
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| Thomas Smith. Source: I Forge Iron |
(Note the Snail logo below the Ford script on the image above.)
In the 1959, the factory location was moved from Saltley about 10 miles east to Coleshill. Many of their products (hammers, hatchets, garden tools, spanners (chrome-vanadium & carbon steel) plus their adjustable & pipe wrenches) were exported to India. At some point the company was acquired by the Chillington Corporation, and remained on their books until at least 1992:
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| Medium Companies of Europe 1991/92. Volume 2 |
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| 1938. Source: Grace's Guide |
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| 1953 |
Update: below some of the Snail trademarks stamped on my tools, and from ads. I hadn't considered it before a visitor commented below, but it turns out that the snail does point both to the right and left!
Wow, I was not aware of Snail Brand tools. These would be just the thing to go with my Citroen 2CV, aka The Tin Snail.
ReplyDeleteI am jealous!
The Citroen Guy
i worked at thomas smith for 14 yrs from 1969 to 1984, they were brought up for their order book just after,but by then snail brand tools were not in production
ReplyDeleteI was born in Birmingham and my dad did his apprenticeship at Thomas Smith & Sons. His father (my grandfather) was a foreman there (since 1915 or so!!). My dad would have worked there in the early 1960's. We moved to the States in the 1980's. However, I have all of his tools and many of them have the 'snail' brand marking! Unfortunately he passed away at the young age of 52, but I still have his tools!!
ReplyDeleteSo sad that they weren't able to continue - their product was definitely one of quality!!!
Hi I have one of these snail brand spanners? but the snail is facing the other way and is more ornate may be a copy but is old and whitworth size so maybe an odd one. In all the pictures of these spanners I have seen the snail is heading off to the left!
ReplyDeleteHello, I came across your website by accident - lots of interesting content, but just to mention that as far as I'm aware, Snail Brand tools are still in production, by Smith Francis Tools of Birmingham -
ReplyDeletehttp://www.smithfrancistools.co.uk/doubleopenendedwrenches.htm
Did they ever make knives
ReplyDeleteNot as far as I know. At least in Britain, the firms which made hand tools tended to be different from those which made edge tools. Still, it's not beyond possibility.
DeleteHappy memories
ReplyDeleteI belive Thomas Smith was my great great great grandfather and have found a spanner with a snail on it that has been passed down the generations. My grandfather from my Mother's side was a Smith so sure this must be true. Jonathan Corp
ReplyDeleteMy first job was at thomas smith & son ,in 1971, at coleshill. I was employed as an estimator, to give prices for speculative drop forging jobs. Incredible memories of the shop floor where they had a range of hammers to make small spanners through to crankshafts. A block of red hot metal was smashed into shape and then machined. Awesome.
ReplyDeleteI have a hammer saying snail brand MA But doesn't have the touchmark. It's this a real snail brand hammer?
ReplyDeleteI have a hammer saying snail brand MA But doesn't have the touchmark. It's this a real snail brand hammer?
ReplyDeleteSnail brand upholstery hammers are the best you can own
ReplyDeleteToday i bought one little snail brand wrench at my local flea market in Croatia for 3 euros....I did not know of that brand until today and i had to have him. It is old wrench but still great looking.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting article. Learning a lot about the tools which are helpful in the daily life.
ReplyDeleteI collect Railway tools and i love all the snail branded spanners i have, despite the hard use many must have had in railway workshops all the ones i have are as goos as the day they were made
ReplyDeleteits nice to find some history of this vintage spanners.As a vintage vehicles restorer i also collects snail brand spanners.strangely,i have got two different number ten spanners.two different set up of sizes?both are of the same model as i see from the design.
ReplyDeleteI've come across a couple of Snail Brand spanners at the local flea market.
ReplyDeleteThey looked/are really good quality. So I had to have them. Only cost a pound each. I'll be looking out for more.
Bogger
Tenho uma machadinha que acabei de restaurar, ficou linda.
ReplyDeleteI have a wrench with just the snail pointing left. Is this specific to certain years?
ReplyDeleteWe don't know, they seem to face both directions, but no idea why!
ReplyDeleteI have to ask... what is the w and bs stand for?
ReplyDeleteI worked at Thomas Smith's from 1977 to 1990.it was a great family run place.
ReplyDeleteI have just found a surface rusted SNAIL wrench that according to details elsewhere is a "Q" wrench but has what looks like "(W)" on handle so possibly not a Q offering?
ReplyDeleteHas "SNAIL BRAND" on one side of handle and Made in England on the other.
Obviously old and well used but today cleaned (not overly) and greased and oiled and ready for more work. I have NEVER heard of Snail brand until today and then looked up the origins.
Thanks Folks.
I have several snail wrenches which i got in a box with a card saying " Gardner & sons
ReplyDeletePatricroft Accessories''' Any Knowledge anyone ??
I found a 5/16w 1/4w open ended spanner interested in its history
ReplyDeleteI have an S-shape Snail Brand spanner in my Snail Brand tools collection. I have been collecting Snail Brand tools for a couple of years and in all this time I haven’t seen another for sale or been able to find any other photo or information on one.
ReplyDeleteEu tenho uma ferramenta tripla da Snail Brand.
ReplyDeleteEla é um machado, martelo e pé de cabra tudo junto com cabo misto de ferro e madeira.
Restaurei em 2019 está linda.
Vou tirar uma foto para postar.
I worked at Thomas Smiths & Sons (Snail Brand) in Coleshill from around 1987 until it closed down in 1992.
ReplyDeleteI was a machine tool fitter in the maintenance Department to start, but moved into the toolroom/die shop after a while. Believe it or not, one of my jobs in the die shop was to operate the pantograph machine, this is the tool that was used to machine the actual SNAIL into the die.
I always used to machine large 'eyes' onto the ends of the snails tentacles so that I'd recognise 'my' spanners. This odd feature was never picked up in the toolroom's final inspection, because another of my jobs in the toolroom was in fact,
,,, final inspection :)
Did the different logos have different time periods?
DeleteSounds like you were having too much fun. I'll look for those tools!
ReplyDeleteProbably way way too late to reply Re post in May 2021, but Gardner at Patricroft, an area in Manchester, were a substantial and high quality manufacturer of Diesel engines for certainly commercial vehicles both lorries and buses and perhaps other types too. As Smiths made tools for Ford and Leyland, plus others I am not currently aware of, sounds like they made them for Gardner’s too.
ReplyDelete