What Are Wrenches?
What is a wrench? To people familiar with this ubiquitous tool, it may sound like a stupid question, but in fact, not everyone has used a wrench, or knows what exactly one is or how it works, let alone the many different wrench types and what each is good for. Generally speaking, a wrench, also known as a spanner in British English, is a very useful moving tool that applies torque to fasten or loosen nuts and bolts. Simple enough, but there are a lot of common wrench types, each designed with different purposes and uses in mind, and operating in different ways. Open-ended wrenches, for instance, are simple, one-piece tools with a handle and a U-shaped opening on one or both ends, designed to grab opposite ends of the nut or bolt. Most often, if both ends have an opening, they are different sizes for purposes of convenience. A type of open-ended wrench is the adjustable wrench, which has adjustable-size jaws. The most commonly recognizable kind of adjustable wrench is the pipe wrench, a
