Bending Wrench (Hickey)

Identity

• Name: Bending Wrench — also scroll wrench / scrolling wrench (the two commercial-catalog terms found most often, used interchangeably by makers) and, in an older, dated, named-source term already established in this corpus's own sibling Bending Fork entry, the hickey. A direct I Forge Iron post citing Turley Forge (Frank Turley's Santa Fe school — already this corpus's most-cited named blacksmithing voice) states plainly: "the hickey [is an] old fashioned name for the bending wrench." [I Forge Iron, "Bending Fork / Scroll Tool dimensions?," cited via the sibling entry]
• Family/category: A handheld leverage tool that works in a pair (or paired with a hardy-mounted Bending Fork) — not a hardy tool itself in most current commercial forms, which is the entry's central structural distinction from its three already-built hardy-tool siblings (Anvil, Hardy (Hot) Cut, Bottom Swage) and from the Bending Fork it is always sold and used alongside.
• One-line: A short-handled, slotted or hooked hand tool that grips a length of hot bar or round stock and applies leverage against a second fixed or handheld point — usually the Bending Fork anchored in the hardy hole, or a second bending wrench — to introduce, confine, or true up a bend in scrollwork.
• A genuine, confirmed cross-trade naming collision — worth flagging plainly, with the capability claim corrected per the review. "Hickey" (often "hickey bar") is an independently-attested, much more widely used name in the electrical trade, commonly referring to a conduit bender — often a model intended for rigid conduit — including a historically named commercial type, the "Lakin hickey." Current manufacturer pages (Greenlee, Gardner Bender) directly verify hickey models rated for rigid conduit; compatible conduit types (including whether a given model is also rated for EMT) and sizes are model-specific, and this entry does not claim a universal "without collapsing the tube" capability for the category. [Electrician's Slang glossary, electricalslang.com; Mike Holt Forums, "Hickey???" thread — both search-synthesis; Greenlee 1" rigid-conduit hickey and Gardner Bender 1/2" rigid hickey product pages — directly verified, added per the review.] Even within electrical-trade sourcing, the word's own origin is described as murky — "nobody really knows for sure" — so this is not a case of one trade borrowing a settled etymology from the other; it is two separate trades independently landing on the same slang word for two mechanically unrelated bending tools. No source found this run documents a real-world mix-up between the two, so this is stated as a live naming risk, not a documented incident — see Lineage-misuse.
• Why this entry exists. The sibling Bending Fork entry (Run 459) named the bending wrench directly as its true working partner and the source of the "hickey" term, but the wrench had no file of its own anywhere in the corpus. A fresh corpus-wide reconnaissance pass this run (Priority Queue empty, Parking Lot exhausted per Run 509's own closing note) found it as the strongest remaining citation gap: an already-staged sibling entry naming the tool by function, terminology, and technique, with no entry to point to.

How NOT to use it (the heaviest section)

Not-for:

• Corrected per the review: cold bending is not a categorical not-for, and the entry's own principal source contradicts the earlier claim. The earlier draft said no source describes cold use; in fact the same I Forge Iron "Scroll Wrenches" thread (topic 7447) already cited throughout this entry as read in full includes a poster describing using the wrenches "quite often on cold work," and Ned Edelen's 1994 Metalsmith article tells readers the wrench should be strong enough to bend the intended scroll "at ambient" temperature. Neither source makes every size or material safe to bend cold; together they establish that hot-vs-cold is a load-, stock-, and tool-capacity decision, not an identity boundary. Use hot work for heavy sections or tight bends where it reduces the force required; controlled cold bending is appropriate for lighter, more ductile stock within the tool's rated strength. Stop if the tool, handle, or jaws begin to yield. [I Forge Iron, "Scroll Wrenches" (topic 7447); Ned Edelen, Metalsmith (1994) — corrected per the review.]
• Striking or punching — a reasoned extension of the tool's pure-leverage geometry (a handle and a jaw, not a struck face or edge). Flagged explicitly as Haft's own reasoned inference, not an independently sourced misuse account.
• High-volume identical-curve production work — Marc's own named recommendation (Human Side) points a smith toward a compact bending machine once the job outgrows hand leverage; using the wrench past that point is a real, sourced mismatch rather than a hard failure.

Dangerous — this entry's thinnest class, stated plainly rather than papered over, consistent with the sibling Bending Fork entry's own honest finding for the same family.

• The generic hardy-hole and hand-forging pinch/burn hazard, carried forward from this corpus's established sourcing, applies to any adjacent tool worked at the anvil or vise while hot stock is present (ABANA's standing safety guidance, already cited across this corpus's hardy-tool entries; ABANA-affiliate wikis and guild safety pages consulted at search-synthesis confidence for this run specifically).
• Leverage snap-back — stock kicking free under load. A plausible, mechanically reasoned hazard given the tool's whole design is applying hand leverage to hot metal under tension, but no named, first-person account of an acute injury from a bending wrench specifically was located this run, despite direct, differently-worded searching of I Forge Iron and Reddit's r/Blacksmith. Stated as an honest gap, the same discipline the sibling Bending Fork entry applies to its own tine-pinch hazard.
• Eye and hearing protection apply directly, per the same standing hammer-and-anvil guidance already cited across this corpus's hardy-tool family.

Damaging:

• ★ Unfiled sharp inner jaw corners marring the workpiece. Directly sourced, named-practitioner: HWooldridge's own quoted rule — "Grind or file all the sharp corners from the inside of the forks so you don't make nicks in your nice scrolls" (I Forge Iron topic 7447).
• ★ Heavy-handed leverage spreading or deforming the wrench itself. Directly sourced, named-practitioner: "mb" (I Forge Iron topic 22563) — "if you're too heavy handed with em they will spread" — independently corroborated by a second poster in the same thread reporting that mild-steel versions "did not hold up well." A real, dated, first-hand tool-failure account, not a reasoned inference.
• Non-parallel jaw faces twisting the scroll under bending force. Directly sourced, same HWooldridge quote (Human Side, above) — this is both a damaging-class finding (the work is ruined) and a beginner-trap finding (see below), depending on when the smith notices.

Beginner-trap:

• ★ Non-parallel inner jaw faces — a mistake that looks fine until the piece is unclamped. HWooldridge's own sourced warning (above): a scroll bent with non-parallel wrench jaws twists during bending, which is exactly the shape of a beginner trap — the fault is in the tool's set-up, not the technique, and it doesn't announce itself until the work is checked.
• Corrected per the review: a single wrench is not inherently improper, but an unsecured or distant second reaction point produces an uncontrolled bend. Marc's own quoted technique (Human Side, above) — "with only one fork, you'll end up bending everything from the fork to the vise" — describes what happens when the second reaction point (fork, vise, jig, or a second wrench) is too far from the intended bend zone, not a rule that a single wrench is unsafe or improper on its own. The relevant question for a beginner is whether the second reaction point is secure and positioned to confine the load path, not whether it is specifically a second wrench.
• Building a first wrench from mild steel rather than a tougher stock. A second poster's own account in topic 22563 (Human Side, above) that mild-steel wrenches "did not hold up well" is a real, dated, first-hand finding that a beginner's natural first-build material choice is also documented to underperform — carried at the confidence of one named account, not generalized further than the source supports.

Lineage-misuse:

• ★ Confusing this tool with a general adjustable (crescent) wrench. A real, sourced, converging-not-diverging case: at least one smith deliberately converts a standard adjustable wrench into a bending wrench (topic 77656, search-synthesis) — meaning the name "wrench" genuinely risks a reader assuming this is a mechanic's tool used to turn fasteners, when its whole function is bending leverage, not rotational torque on a nut or bolt. Named explicitly so the naming overlap isn't mistaken for a synonym.
• ★ Confusing the blacksmithing "hickey" with the electrical trade's "hickey" (conduit-bending) tool — a genuine, confirmed cross-trade naming collision, not a documented incident. The electrician's hickey is an independently, well-attested lever tool commonly used for bending rigid conduit — model-specific for exact conduit type and size, per current manufacturer pages, rather than a universal "won't collapse any tube" claim (corrected per the review) — including a historically named commercial type (the "Lakin hickey") [Electrician's Slang glossary; Mike Holt Forums, "Hickey???" thread — search-synthesis; Greenlee and Gardner Bender product pages — directly verified]. Even electrical-trade sources describe the term's own origin as unsettled ("nobody really knows for sure"). No source found this run documents an actual real-world mix-up between the two trades' tools — this is stated as a live naming risk worth flagging plainly in a cross-trade corpus, not as evidence of a documented failure.
• Confusing this tool with the Bending Fork itself. The same live, unresolved ambiguity the sibling entry already names from its own side: general/retail usage sometimes treats "bending fork" and "bending/scroll wrench" as loosely interchangeable, while the tools are mechanically distinct (a fixed or hardy-mounted anchor point versus a handheld leverage tool) and are more precisely used as a matched pair than as synonyms for each other. Stated here, from the wrench's own side, as the same live ambiguity rather than a settled distinction.
• Confusing this tool with a scrolling jig. Carried forward from the sibling Bending Fork entry's own established distinction: the wrench (like the fork) makes and adjusts an individual bend by hand-eye judgment, where a scrolling jig is a fixed form for identical, repeat-production curves.

Correct use

Genuinely good at: confining and controlling exactly where a bend happens along a length of hot bar or round stock, and reaching inside a partially-formed scroll to true it up or correct a flawed curve — the two uses independently and directly sourced from named practitioners (Marc, HWooldridge; I Forge Iron topic 7447) and from current maker product copy (reach "where a hammer cannot reach").

The short version. Used singly against a fixed anchor (commonly a hardy-mounted Bending Fork), the wrench's jaw grips the stock and the handle applies leverage to introduce or deepen a curve. Used in a matched pair, one wrench holds the work steady while the other bends, and the pair is walked up the length of the stock for a long or complex curve — Marc's own directly-quoted technique (Human Side, above). Doug C's vise-clamped variant shows the same principle worked with a fixed low anchor instead of a fork.

Honest gap. No named, first-person, fully step-by-step technique sequence comparable to the depth of, say, Stokes' FAO bottom-swage sequence (already cited in the sibling Bottom Swage entry) was located for the bending wrench specifically; the I Forge Iron thread (topic 7447) gives real technique in practitioner replies rather than a structured how-to, and is treated at that weight.

Matching (the workbench's first read)

• Does: grips and applies hand leverage to hot bar/round stock to introduce, extend, or correct a bend; confines a bend to a controlled zone when used against a fixed anchor or a second wrench; trues up and corrects an already-formed scroll where a hammer or the hardy-mounted fork alone can't reach.
• Suits: ornamental/architectural scrollwork, S-hooks and J-hooks, gate and railing curves, correcting a scroll against a jig or chalk line — the same project family the sibling Bending Fork entry documents via ABANA's own National Curriculum Level III grille capstone.
• Kit-fit: pairs directly with the Bending Fork (the corpus's own established working-pair relationship, sourced from both sides now); commonly bought or forged in matched sets of two identical jaw widths, per Marc's own directly-quoted rationale. Substitutes for: a second identical wrench can substitute for the fork itself as the fixed anchor in a pinch (Doug C's vise-clamped variant; the fork-and-wrench pairing is functionally two leverage points, not strictly fork-plus-wrench). Substituted by: a shop-made vise-clamped U-bender, a converted adjustable wrench, or a compact commercial bending machine (a Harbor Freight-class bender, per Marc) once the bend is longer or larger than hand leverage comfortably manages. Cannot replace a scrolling jig for identical repeat-production curves — the same category boundary the sibling Bending Fork entry establishes for itself.
• Not-for (project-keyed): striking or punching; cutting or shearing stock; large-radius or high-volume production bending, where a fixed jig or a bending machine is the better-matched tool (Marc's own named recommendation). Cold bending is not a not-for — corrected per the review (see How NOT to use it, below).
• Access: genuinely low floor to acquire — cheap to forge from scrap or fabricate from flat bar and repurposed pins (multiple directly-sourced DIY builds, topics 7447 and 22563), and even a converted standard adjustable wrench works (topic 77656). But the quality floor for safe, clean results is real and sourced: unfiled sharp inner corners and non-parallel jaws are documented, named failure modes for a novice-made tool, not hypothetical ones.
• Revival: a live, current commercial market — at minimum three independently confirmed current makers this run (FieryFurnaceForge, Front Step Forge, Blacksmith Supply), commonly sold matched with a bending fork. A maker picks this tool up for the same reason the sibling Bending Fork entry names: moving from crude freehand curves into repeatable, controlled scrollwork — here specifically the step from "I can bend a curve" to "I can bend exactly this much, exactly here."

Anatomy

• Jaw/hook end. A slotted or hooked working end sized to the stock diameter being bent — the part that actually engages the bar. Current commercial listings size this to a run of widths rather than one fixed size (see Variations).
• Handle. A leverage arm, typically round or square bar stock, giving the smith reach and mechanical advantage the bare hand doesn't have. One current maker's dimensioned listing: handle width 5/8", handle thickness 3/8", handle length 10", overall tool length ~12", with a 1/2" hole drilled through the handle for shop-wall hanging storage. [FieryFurnaceForge product listing, read directly]
• No hardy shank, in most current commercial forms — the entry's central anatomical distinction from its hardy-tool siblings. The wrench is a free handheld tool, not anchored in the anvil's hardy hole (though at least one maker, Front Step Forge, markets a version explicitly usable "for the anvil and hand," blurring the line slightly — see Variations).
• A named, sourced geometry requirement, independently corroborated. HWooldridge's own quoted rule (Human Side, above) — keep the inside faces of the jaw parallel, and file the inside corners smooth — is both an anatomy specification and the entry's clearest sourced damaging/beginner-trap finding at once, the same double duty the parallel-jaw requirement plays in the sibling Bending Fork entry.
• Honest gap. No named-author technical manual with a labeled, dimensioned anatomy diagram was located for the bending wrench specifically — anatomy here is cross-corroborated from current manufacturer product specs and named forum practitioners, the same sourcing shape (and the same stated limitation) as the sibling Bending Fork entry.

Variations (living)

Sets. Sold matched with a Bending Fork as a paired product (e.g. FieryFurnaceForge's combined bending-fork-and-wrench set) — direct commercial confirmation of the working-pair relationship established under Contemporaries and Human Side.

Trades (where it appears)

Ornamental/decorative ironwork — the exhaustive documented trade home, matching the sibling Bending Fork entry. General blacksmithing — bundled with bending forks in current commercial sets and named directly in ABANA-affiliate curriculum (the CBA Vista Forge Level II project book). Farriery — a genuine, directly checked absence: no farrier-tool catalog searched this run (Centaur Forge, Stockhoff's, Perun, Lambert Blacksmithing) lists a bending or scroll wrench among named farrier tools. Electrical trade — a tool bearing the same slang name ("hickey") exists in this trade, but it is a mechanically unrelated conduit-bending tool, not this one; named explicitly under Lineage-misuse so the trades are never conflated.

Lineage

Ancestors. The direct functional ancestor is the same one the Bending Fork traces to: freehand bending over the anvil horn. Corrected per the review: the fork-then-wrench sequence is not established, and the family should be defined functionally rather than by an assumed fixed pairing. Historical terminology actually overlaps rather than sequences cleanly — Sallows (1907) calls the handheld form a bending fork used like a wrench, while Ilgen (1912) distinguishes a named wrench from a fixed fork. A handheld slotted or hooked leverage tool that grips stock and supplies a localized bending or twisting moment can work against a hardy-mounted fork, a vise, a jig, an anvil feature, or another secure reaction point; two handheld wrenches are one common, useful configuration, not an identity requirement or evidence of a sequential lineage from fork to wrench. Treat "bending fork," "scroll wrench," and "bending/twisting wrench" as overlapping historical and shop vocabularies that require a geometry/context check, not a fixed taxonomy.

Descendants — none located; a genuine, honestly stated gap. Unlike the sibling Bending Fork entry, which discusses the Hossfeld "Iron Bender" (1922/23) and its cited-by chain to 2019 as a mechanized analogue, no comparable mechanized analogue with a documented citation trail was found for the handheld bending wrench specifically. Corrected per the review: this entry does not claim Hossfeld-type machines descend "more naturally" from the fork than the wrench. Both the fork and the wrench control stock between a moving force and a fixed (or paired) reaction point, which is a functional similarity to Hossfeld-style mechanized benders, not evidence of descent from either hand tool. Any direct descent claim is unknown and unsupported by dated design or maker evidence; this entry states the analogy and leaves the lineage question open rather than assigning it to one tool over the other.

Contemporaries.

• Bending Fork — the wrench's true working partner, already established from the other side of this same citation (see Identity). Named practitioner "Marc" (I Forge Iron, "Scroll Wrenches," 2008, read in full) gives the clearest sourced statement of the pairing principle found anywhere in this corpus's blacksmithing material: "The reason for using two [wrenches] the same size is to control where the bend happens... With only one fork, you'll end up bending everything from the fork to the vise. With two, you place them on each end of the section you want to bend, and that's all that gets bent." This directly corroborates, from an independent source, the Turley Forge citation already in the sibling entry that the bend is confined "between the near fork post and the far wrench post."
• A shop-made vise-clamped U-bender — poster "Doug C" (same 2008 thread) describes a simple U-shaped bender clamped low in a vise jaw as a functional low-tech substitute for a purpose-made wrench, tuned by how far it protrudes from the jaws.
• A repurposed adjustable wrench. Corrected per the review: this is not solely a search-synthesis finding. The fully-read 2008 "Scroll Wrenches" thread (topic 7447) itself contains an adjustable-wrench conversion account, in addition to the separate I Forge Iron topic "Adjustable Bending Wrench" (topic 77656, reached only via search-synthesis after a direct-fetch access issue — that thread's own verification level is unchanged and still flagged at that lower confidence). Together they document a smith converting a flea-market adjustable wrench, rounded jaws plus a pipe-handle extension, into a bending wrench — a genuine contemporary improvisation lineage distinct from the purpose-forged tool.
• A compact commercial bending machine (e.g. a Harbor Freight bender) — named directly by "Marc" in the same thread as the right tool to reach for once a bend is longer or larger than hand leverage suits; the wrench and the machine occupy different ends of the same job, not a lineage relationship.

History (Petroski "form follows failure" lens)

Origin — corrected per the reviewer's 2026-09-03 review: the entry originally overstated the evidence gap. The earlier draft claimed no patent, museum record, or archaeological source dates this tool before the current curriculum/forum record. That claim does not hold. James Francis Sallows's 1907 The Blacksmith's Guide illustrates a handheld bending fork (Fig. 15) used, in Sallows's own words, "the same as a wrench," and gives two construction methods for it — a direct, dated, illustrated handheld form with period naming ambiguity (Sallows calls it a fork while describing wrench-like use) already built into the earliest source found. William L. Ilgen's 1912 Forge Work (§145) independently names a distinct "Bending or Twisting Wrench" and describes its use with a bending fork to form a scroll. Binghamton University's Public Archaeology Facility reports an excavated object identified as a "scroll fork/wrench" from the Chittenango Blacksmith Site, a nineteenth-century shop context that had ceased operating by roughly 1900 — reported here conservatively, since the university's own record does not by itself settle the exact object taxonomy or deposition date, but it is a genuine archaeological data point this entry cannot say does not exist. The cautious timeline: an excavated object from a nineteenth-century shop context; an illustrated handheld bending fork/wrench by 1907; a distinct named bending/twisting wrench by 1912; later guild, curriculum, vendor, and forum continuity. The precise age of the form and the origin of the names remain unresolved — this entry does not claim to have settled either. [James Francis Sallows, The Blacksmith's Guide (1907); William L. Ilgen, Forge Work (1912), §145; Binghamton University Public Archaeology Facility, Chittenango Blacksmith Site, artifacts and site history pages — all added per the review.]

A real, dated institutional data point. The California Blacksmith Association's Vista Forge Level II Project Instruction Book, read directly, indexes a named, numbered project distinct from its generic scroll-work projects:

"16 .................. Williamsburg Bending Wrench — BH" [CBA Vista Forge Level II Project Instruction Book, PDF, read directly, ocblacksmith.com]

Corrected per the review: "BH" is confirmed, and "Williamsburg" is a project title, not a provenance claim. The Level II Project Book's own abbreviation key identifies BH as Beth Holmberg — attributed here rather than left unresolved. The title "Williamsburg Bending Wrench" is evidence of a curriculum/pattern name, not by itself evidence that the tool originated at Colonial Williamsburg or in the colonial period; Haft did not independently verify Colonial Williamsburg's own primary sources (Thomas K. Ford's The Blacksmith in Eighteenth-Century Williamsburg, already checked and found silent on hardy/bending tools generally by the sibling Bending Fork entry) naming this specific wrench pattern. Treat "Williamsburg Bending Wrench" as the CBA project's own title, attributed to Beth Holmberg, unless a primary source establishes a stronger institutional or historical provenance.

Construction accounts exist earlier and more substantially than the earlier draft stated. Sallows (1907) gives two making methods, including cleft-welded and a stronger unwelded drawn-and-slotted form. Ned Edelen's 1994 Metalsmith article ("Blacksmithing Tips — Scroll Wrenches") gives sizing and welded/forged construction guidance, and a 2025 BAM (Blacksmiths' Association of Missouri) newsletter demonstration article documents a current build sequence and a cold-shut caution. The 1994 and earlier sources are the historical construction record; the 2025 account is current corroboration, not historical proof. [Ned Edelen, "Blacksmithing Tips — Scroll Wrenches," Metalsmith Vol. 18 No. 1 (May 1994); BAM Jan–Feb 2025 newsletter — added per the review.]

No "form follows failure" patent chain exists for this tool, consistent with the sibling Bending Fork entry's own finding for the fork itself — read plainly, both tools are genuine shop-made/forged kit, cheap to produce from scrap, and apparently never patented even as improvements. The absence of a patent is not evidence the tool was historically absent; simple shop-made tools commonly circulate outside patent literature.

Human Side

Traditions & trades. Ornamental/architectural ironwork and general blacksmithing scrollwork — the exhaustive pattern across every source found this run, matching the sibling Bending Fork entry's own dominant-trade finding. Farriery — a genuine, checked absence, named plainly. Farrier-tool catalogs (Centaur Forge, Stockhoff's, Perun, Lambert Blacksmithing) were searched directly and none list a "bending wrench," "scroll wrench," or "hickey" among named farrier tools; those catalogs' own bending-adjacent tools are horseshoe-specific (fullers, creasers). This is stated as an absence found, not an absence assumed from omission — farriers do sometimes borrow general blacksmithing tools, but no citation confirms it here.

Named hands, real and dated — the strongest single source this run, a full named-practitioner thread. ★ I Forge Iron, "Scroll Wrenches" (topic 7447, October 2008, read in full) — a genuine, dated, multi-smith thread that runs the tool's whole practical life in one place: a beginner ("Arbalist") asking how to size his first pair, and a working roster of named smiths answering from direct experience — Dutchmancreek/Steve, Bob Ouellette, John B, HWooldridge, John Martin, Marc, Jose Gomez, Jerry Carroll, Ted Throckmorton, Blacksmith Jim.

• Marc gives the pairing/technique principle quoted above under Contemporaries, and adds: "I mostly use my left [wrench] to hold the piece steady and right [wrench] to bend. For a long, or complex, bend, you just keep working the [wrenches] up the length of the piece" — real, first-hand, two-handed working technique.
• HWooldridge gives the entry's sharpest sourced damaging- and beginner-trap-class finding, in his own words: "Keep the inside of the forks parallel or your scrolls will twist when you are bending... Grind or file all the sharp corners from the inside of the forks so you don't make nicks in your nice scrolls."
• Doug C describes the low-tech vise-clamped U-bender substitute (see Contemporaries), with a real working detail: setting it low in the jaws "helps me keep from tilting the work piece up or down and makes for less dressing of the piece afterwords."
• Jerry Carroll supplies a small, genuine human beat: "I copied your great design for the bending tool close to the size pictured. It took less than an hour!" — a real, dated (2008) account of a smith building his own from a forum post the same day.

A second, dated named-practitioner thread on tool failure. I Forge Iron, "Fabricated bending wrenches" (topic 22563, 2011, read in full) — poster "mb" describes a durable field-made design (flat bar plus repurposed sucker-rod pins), with an honest, first-hand failure note: "if you're too heavy handed with em they will spread." A second poster independently reports that mild-steel versions "did not hold up well" — two separately-arrived-at accounts of the same damaging failure mode (see How NOT to use it).

Honest gap. No source found this run connects Frank Turley's own authored material (beyond the citation already established in the sibling Bending Fork entry) to bending-wrench technique specifically, despite direct searching. A third I Forge Iron thread, "Adjustable Bending Wrench" (topic 77656), documents a smith converting a flea-market adjustable wrench into a bending wrench, but its full text could not be directly fetched this run — carried at search-synthesis confidence only, flagged rather than upgraded. Reddit's r/Blacksmith was searched directly and returned no relevant threads — a stated absence, not a skipped search.

Proof of existence

Corrected per the review. The earlier draft claimed no pre-20th-century documentary or archaeological evidence connects this tool to any dated historical form. That claim was false and is corrected below.

• Archaeological evidence exists, reported conservatively. Binghamton University's Public Archaeology Facility identifies an excavated object as a "scroll fork/wrench" from the Chittenango Blacksmith Site, a nineteenth-century shop context that had fallen out of use by roughly 1900. The university's record supports a nineteenth-century context and a terminus before the shop's disappearance, but does not by itself settle the exact object taxonomy or deposition date — a genuine archaeological data point, held at that qualified weight.
• A documentary record exists from at least 1907. Sallows's 1907 The Blacksmith's Guide illustrates a handheld bending fork used "the same as a wrench," and Ilgen's 1912 Forge Work names a distinct "Bending or Twisting Wrench." This entry does not establish an earlier origin, and the exact age of the form and the naming history remain unresolved.
• No dated, provenanced museum record was located beyond the archaeological record above. No targeted search this run (general museum-collection queries) returned an object catalogued in a standing museum collection as a bending wrench, scroll wrench, or hickey.
• No dedicated patent was located. Targeted Google Patents and DATAMP searches combining "bending wrench," "scroll wrench," and "hickey" with blacksmith/anvil/forge terms returned only unrelated hits (torque wrenches, scroll-saw wrenches, electrical conduit benders) — a checked negative, not an unexamined gap. This absence is not evidence the tool was historically absent; simple shop-made tools commonly circulate outside patent literature.
• What is real: a named, dated, indexed curriculum project. The CBA Vista Forge Level II Project Instruction Book's "Williamsburg Bending Wrench" (project 16, attributed to Beth Holmberg), read directly, is real institutional/pedagogical evidence of a standing, named, dated pattern — weaker than a museum or patent record, but a genuine citation, not a retail listing, and its title should not be read as a colonial-Williamsburg provenance claim (see History).
• What is also real: a live, current, multi-vendor commercial record, plus a real, dated (2008 and 2011) named-practitioner forum record (I Forge Iron topics 7447 and 22563, both read in full) documenting the tool's actual working life, construction, and failure modes in named smiths' own words.

References

The reviewer's corrections (8)

• SHOULD-FIX — Restore the documented early history
• SHOULD-FIX — Remove the categorical cold-bending exclusion
• SHOULD-FIX — Correct the tool-family and pairing claims
• SHOULD-FIX — Correct the CBA attribution and the Williamsburg inference
• SHOULD-FIX — Correct the claimed lack of technical construction accounts
• SHOULD-FIX — Recast the Hossfeld statement as analogy, not descent
• SHOULD-FIX — Repair the source-verification ledger
• SHOULD-FIX — Narrow the electrical “hickey” collision note