Are most of the ones you see for sale replicas?
Besides made of steel, how do you know if their real?
Thanks Pat.

Pat, Yes, most all of the wrenches you will see for sale are reproductions or fake. I know of less than a half dozen Newhouse #4 1/2 wrenches that are real. The wrenches were cast, so there should be evidence of that. I have seen some pretty good fakes, so you need good reference material and look for tool marks, there should not be any. The wrench was advertised for meany years, I don't know were they all went but they must not have sold a lot. Dean

Appreciate the help. I was recently told about one a guy is trying to dangle in front of me. Sounded to good to be true. Many thanks.

Dean is there any stamping on the real deal wrenches? Or any type of casting marks to look for.

The wrench is not marked in any way. But, they were cast and there will be a spot on the edge below the hammer head were the molten metal was poured into the mold. When the wrench was removed from the mold, they just snapped off the extra metal piece, leaving a small rough spot. This is also on the repo cast brass ones. Most of the steel repo wrenches are cut out of sheet steel, so they are flat and the hammer head is just beaten down to make it thicker.

I would rather not show photos of a real one, just because that makes it that much easier to fake them. With collector traps getting more valuable, there are a lot of fakes already, not just the wrench but traps, trap parts and Newhouse clevis, drags and chains. Buyer beware, Ebay has lots of fake stuff, most sold as original by a well known trap maker.

Here are a couple photos of fakes.

Coincidentally one showed up on ebay today, listed as a repro....

Just seen that also. If Repo's are worth $200 what is the original one worth.

Says it is not an antique, but he already sold 2 others and did not say that. The first one said, "in good condition for it's age". The second said, "in good condition." $200 each, a bargain if they were real. Someone got scammed, two someones.