Garrington Kestrel Vintage Offset Box Wrench or Spanner Review and Information

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Garrington’s Kestrel range of wrenches are of the double ended offset ring spanner or box wrench variety which were made exclusively in Britain. Here’s a mini-restoration and review of the wrenches! If you’re looking for more information on the company, see this page.

Sometimes these are referred to as Carrington Kestrel wrenches – the G isn’t super clear so it’s an easy mistake to make.

Apparently in 1951 the branding of their hand tools changed from Garrington Hand Tools to Garringtons (Ltd) Hand Tools – so if that’s the case it may help date your wrench if it lacks their usual date stamp, though based on the wrenches we have found so far that doesn’t seem to be reliable – in the below list you can see that there’s a 1959 wrench without the S but a 1960 wrench with the S. My guess? They didn’t change (some/all of?) the castings for existing tools but some new ones will have reflected the updated name.

Some of the Kestrel wrenches we have seen so far:

  • Garrington Kestrel RAA1922 – 11/16″ AF and 19/32″ AF (dateless)
  • Garrington Kestrel RAA2428 – 7/8″ AF and 3/4″ AF (dateless)
  • Garrington Kestrel RAA3032 – 1″ AF and 15/16″ AF (April 1975 and dateless)
  • Garrington Kestrel RAA3234 – 1″ AF and 1 1/16″ AF (March 1959)
  • Garrington Kestrel RAW0604 – 1/4″BSF 3/16″W and 3/16″BSF 1/8″W (Dec 1951)
  • Garringtons Kestrel RFA3234 – Red Diamond, 1″ and 11/16″ AF (Feb 1960)
  • Garrington Kestrel RFW3238 – Red Diamond, 1″ BSF 7/8W and 1 1/8″BSF 1″W

Seems that the third letter indicates which system the wrench is for – A indicates AF and W indicates BSF/Whitworth.

These wrenches were advertised as new in this advertisement which has apparently been dated to ~1945-1947:

Here is an advertisement for Garrington Hand Tools Kestrel Box Wrench or Ring Spanner, apparently from May 1947.

This would lead me to suspect that the majority if not all of the Kestrels were made post-WWII.

I came across a few of these spanners which were looking a little worse for wear – an example of the surface rust:

Here is a review, restoration and a little bit of history on the Garrington Kestrel range of ring spanners or offset box wrenches, made in England aka Britain.

After a bath in some Evapo-rust eBay UK, eBay AU, eBay US the wrenches came out looking a lot nicer:

Here is a review, restoration and a little bit of history on the Garrington Kestrel range of ring spanners or offset box wrenches, made in England aka Britain.

Proudly displaying the country of origin:

Here is a review, restoration and a little bit of history on the Garrington Kestrel range of ring spanners or offset box wrenches, made in England aka Britain.

You can see how it is that some people mistake Garrington for Carrington:

Here is a review, restoration and a little bit of history on the Garrington Kestrel range of ring spanners or offset box wrenches, made in England aka Britain.

The 1″ and 15/16″ RAA3032:

Here is a review, restoration and a little bit of history on the Garrington Kestrel range of ring spanners or offset box wrenches, made in England aka Britain.

The above examples don’t have any date stamps in them, where most of them do seem to have a date stamp.

In use the spanners are great! They’re 12 point:

Here is a review, restoration and a little bit of history on the Garrington Kestrel range of ring spanners or offset box wrenches, made in England aka Britain.

…which is handy for being able to get swing in tight spots. They’re a good length for getting leverage and are solidly made, fitting the bolt heads nicely. If you like quality vintage tools these are well worth a look. Check them out on your local eBay – eBay US, eBay UK, eBay AU.

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