What is it with the magnetic Leica attraction?

[Roger Hicks]

The term "Monkey" wrench is a term used in the UK for all types of wrenches with an adjustable jaw.
Other than that it is non specific.

Dear Michael,

Quite. But few are suitable for precision work, not least because you usually have a choice of reasonably good but bulky ones -- as jsrockit says, "I was shocked at how precise some if the newer adjustable wrenches are. Very tight and don't move out of range while doing "bodger's work!" -- or smaller, lighter ones that are not very precise. Usually there's no room for a good one if you're working inside anything.

There's a design which is (as far as I know) French and is widely used in France as a symbol for "mechanic" or "garage". They're very good but BIG: I have a couple, which I use mainly for plumbing. They look a bit like split-head hammers: there are pictures at https://www.google.fr/search?q=Fren...OvE0qbKAhWGVRQKHahRD2EQ7AkISw&biw=939&bih=586 -- the very first pic. is an example and there are more below. The type immediately on its right is generally the floppiest of the screw-adjusted types.

I probably have a dozen or more adjustable spanners, mostly because I love old tools. Some are MUCH more precise than others.

Cheers,

R.

 

[bmattock]

I am apparently immune to the siren call of Leica. I think they are terrific, I don't hate them, I just don't have or want one. It's fine either way, people should get what they like.

 

[jszokoli]

The Monkey Wrench

The Monkey Wrench

Here in the U.S. the term Monkey Wrench refered to a specific type of wrench. At this point most people would identify a Stillson Wrench as a Monkey Wrench but...

Below left to right.
1) Cresent Wrench
2) A quite old 'adjustable' wrench
3) Stillson Wrench (a nice old Ridgid 14", small but not tiny, 36" and larger are not uncommon)
4) Monkey Wrench

I sent the better part of an hour digging the Monkey Wrench out of my basement; my father would trirelessly correct me when I would call a Stillson Wrench a Monkey Wrench so I was driven to find the old thing.

Joe



Wrenchs by szokoli, on Flickr

 

[Darthfeeble]

I think it must be all those glory photographers who used the Leica cameras before us that makes us think the brand will bring to us the glory they seemed to have. HCB, Winogrand, on and on. Glory by association......

 

[Oscuro]

I think it must be all those glory photographers who used the Leica cameras before us that makes us think the brand will bring to us the glory they seemed to have. HCB, Winogrand, on and on. Glory by association......

Well it's certainly a healthy dose of that. Same reason a lot of Fenders and Gibsons etc..... At the same time, it's a h&lluva good camera in a rangefinder. Until good reflex cameras came on the market, it (along with a very limited number of alternatives), it was the only game in town if you were working in small format. For some it's still the best tool for the way they work.

 

[David Hughes]

...For Americans keeping up with Brit sizes is tough, while I have both metric and Whitworth wrenches for my bicycles, Raleigh bikes manage to use some proprietary sizes which are neither. There are oddly shaped Raleigh wrenches, that only the the country which make Morgans could imagine, quite handy actually...

Hi,

Would you believe that the collection of odd spanners I use on my old Moulton bikes are mostly labelled "King Dick"?

Regards, David

 

[Chromacomaphoto]

I can't comment on M8, as I in cameradom don't buy disposable electronics, but Leica has the sexiness that other cameras seldom do have. The closest thing that comes to my mind is a Rolleiflex TLR.

I agree with this, I have a pair of Rolleiflexes with 2.8 Planars in great working order and with the proper hoods and a rolleinar here and there. Really in terms of use, Germanic gestalt, uber optical quality and mechanical engineering...I sometimes wonder why I also have a Leica M system as well. I also much prefer devving MF film to 135 if I'm being honest with myself. Rolleiflex negs are a piece of art in and of themselves.

 

[Roger Hicks]

Definitions of tools are certainly more interesting than the usual whining and bitching about how Leicas cost too much, and assertions by amateurs that professionals don't use 'em.

It turns out that what Americans call a "Crescent wrench" is an American trade name and that very similar spanners were made (and patented) long before. The Wikipedia entry has a picture of the kind of French spanner I described, titled "French key", at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adjustable_spanner -- a completely different (and much stronger but unfortunately bigger and heavier) design than the kind made by Crescent, though I can't find any more information on its origins.

And to David: I'm 99% sure that one of my adjustable spanners is a King Dick (I can't be arsed to go and look for it). I certainly have other King Dick spanners and the company (established 1856) is still in business: http://www.kingdicktools.co.uk/info/about-us.asp A single smallish King Dick spanner costs more than some cheap Chinese putty-metal sets: GBP 6-7 (call it $10 US) for one 3/8 AF or 3/16 Whit or 12mm.

Mine are all 50+ years old: I have almost all of my late father's tools, and many more besides. Someday I'll get around to photographing more of them.

Cheers,

R.

 

[Roger Hicks]

I agree with this, I have a pair of Rolleiflexes with 2.8 Planars in great working order and with the proper hoods and a rolleinar here and there. Really in terms of use, Germanic gestalt, uber optical quality and mechanical engineering...I sometimes wonder why I also have a Leica M system as well. I also much prefer devving MF film to 135 if I'm being honest with myself. Rolleiflex negs are a piece of art in and of themselves.

Ever used a "baby" Linhof? At least as well made as a Rollei, AND has a rangefinder, AND interchangeable lenses AND a sensible sized negative: at a 3x enlargement a 57x72mm negative should be indistinguishable from a whole-plate contact print.

You can even get a 100/2.8 Planar if you want one, or an Apo Lanthar.

Cheers,

R.

 

[Michael Markey]

Dear Roger

I have to agree vis a vis the whining about the cost.

Despite have little personal interest in wrenches I`ve found the discussion interesting.

I too have inherited my late fathers tools .

He was firmly of the bodger school and had every wrenche shown in post 66 apart from the Stillson.

Best
Michael

 

[bmattock]

I find it interesting how the camera nerds go off on a tangent about tool nerdery. A more closeted set of pouncetrifles, I never saw.

Seriously guys, you need to get out more. If you were gamers, I'd suspect that more than half of you lived in your mother's basement past age 30 and never went on a date.

I'd say if the brougham fits, wear it, but I suppose then we'd have to endure two pages of replies about the differences in men's shoe styles. 😉

 

[jsrockit]

Seriously guys, you need to get out more.

It doesn't take much time to figure out what a tool is called... 🙄 and how often are you going out? I have dates all the time, and I'm certainly nerdy (though I have my own place).

 

[Roger Hicks]

Dear Roger

I have to agree vis a vis the whining about the cost.

Despite have little personal interest in wrenches I`ve found the discussion interesting.

I too have inherited my late fathers tools .

He was firmly of the bodger school and had every wrenche shown in post 66 apart from the Stillson.

Best
Michael

Dear Michael,

I used to have a 48 inch (length) Stillson that I found in the roof of my previous house but I gave it to a plumber friend.

One of the great things about my tool collection is that it is invariably cheaper to repair whatever I can myself, and often quicker too. A few days ago I stripped and repaired a lock that would have cost me at least 20 euros to replace, to say nothing of a two-and-a-half hour round trip to the hardware store to buy one and probably 30-40 euros to have it fitted. As it was, of course, it went straight back in the 'ole it came out of. Total repair time: under two-and-a-half hours.

The only fancy tool I needed (with a French lock!) was a 3/8 ring spanner (Craftsman). A surprising number of European products still have "legacy" Imperial dimensions, famously including the 26 tpi thread on Leicas (and not 1mm as I once believed it to be).

Cheers,

R.

 

[Roger Hicks]

I find it interesting how the camera nerds go off on a tangent about tool nerdery. A more closeted set of pouncetrifles, I never saw.

Seriously guys, you need to get out more. If you were gamers, I'd suspect that more than half of you lived in your mother's basement past age 30 and never went on a date.

I'd say if the brougham fits, wear it, but I suppose then we'd have to endure two pages of replies about the differences in men's shoe styles. 😉

Alternatively, there are those who are interested in the world around them, and who actually use the tools in which they are interested: a bit like camera collectors and photographers.

How are you defining "nerd"? Someone who is interested in something that does not personally interest you? It's true that I don't go on dates any more but that's because I've been very happily married for 33 years.

And -- sorry, you asked for it -- in English the word Brougham implies a light four-wheeled horse-drawn carriage, or a type of car body: I've never heard of Brougham shoes. Perhaps rather than getting out more you should stay home and read more.

Cheers,

R.

 

[Oscuro]

I think mattock might have meant "Brogue".
In wit's case, he might have been ironic. The wrenching fit.

 

[aizan]

if the brogues fit...damn autocorrect!

 

[Chromacomaphoto]

Ever used a "baby" Linhof? At least as well made as a Rollei, AND has a rangefinder, AND interchangeable lenses AND a sensible sized negative: at a 3x enlargement a 57x72mm negative should be indistinguishable from a whole-plate contact print.

You can even get a 100/2.8 Planar if you want one, or an Apo Lanthar.

Cheers,

R.

No I haven't Roger but it sounds like I would very much like such a thing.

 

[Roger Hicks]

It doesn't take much time to figure out what a tool is called.... . .

But clearly, it does. I'm still learning, cf. "French key". I like learning. As for getting out... Well, this morning I was in Loudun, with its 1000 year old castle (built by the same man who built the local castle a few hundred yards from my house) and famed (or notorious) for Urbain Grandier who was burned at the stake in 1634, principally at the behest of Cardinal Richelieu.

Of course it is possible to dismiss the castles as "just old buildings" and to exist in complete ignorance of Grandier (and the play about him by Huxley) and even of Richelieu; and very few people will know that the French press owes a great deal to Theophraste Renaudot (1586-1653), also of Loudun.

Some people are interested in everything, and regret that they do not have time to learn more. Others are proud of their ignorance. Sorry for the rant, but I just don't understand how people can dismiss interests on history, technology, UK/US linguistic differences, and more, as being akin to gaming. Knowledge is self-stoking and open-ended: most answers raise further questions. It's not a closed system like a computer game.

An entirely fair question is why I am wasting time explaining this, but the answer is that it's displacement activity: I should be working on a website. The content of websites often fascinates me, but I detest the drudgery of dealing with Wordpress.

Cheers,

R.

 

[Roger Hicks]

No I haven't Roger but it sounds like I would very much like such a thing.

Half way down http://www.rogerandfrances.com/subscription/ps large.html there's a Tech IV outfit, though my current "baby" is a stripped-down Technika 70: go to http://www.larry-bolch.com/linhof/ and you'll see pictures of an unmodified camera. They're not even terribly expensive, at least by Leica standards.

Unlike medium-format Alpas. Do you know about those? My wife's favourite combination is 35mm on 6x9cm; I prefer a 38mm Biogon on 44x66mm...

Cheers,

R.

 

[Mike Fish]

..and very few people will know that the French press owes a great deal to Theophraste Renaudot (1586-1653), also of Loudun...
Cheers,

R.

And fewer still may know the French Press (of the coffee brewing type) owes it's existence to Attilio Calimani, an Italian designer.

A new piece of knowledge leads to curiosity, which leads to research (or at least google) and so it begins again...

-mike