Over at Amazon, this Martin 8-inch adjustable wrench is currently deeply discounted to just $2.92. It has a jaw capacity of 1-1/8″, and corrosion-resistant nickel-cobalt finish.
The product description says it’s made from drop forged American alloy steel, but with a seed of doubt in my mind I took a look at the sales flyer (PDF). Made in USA.
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Right now the wrench is out of stock, with a shipping estimate of 1-4 months, but Amazon is still allowing for backorders.
Martin manufactures industrial and automotive tools, but these wrenches might be made for them by another OEM, such as Western Forge. Either way, they should be decent quality, and the price is hard to argue with.
The wrenches are eligible for free shipping on $35+ orders, or free shipping for Prime members.
Hang Fire
Ships in 1-4 months is Amazon-talk for “we have no clue when these will come back into stock.” Could be next week, could be never.
Stuart
Not usually. In my experience 1-4 months means they placed a resupply order, but delivery estimate is uncertain.
When they say temporarily out of stock, order now and we’ll deliver when available is the “next week or never” red flag. For example, look at this Keithley power supply.
Dave
I respect your pessimism, but I’ve also had the opposite experience: A section of schedule 40 red brass pipe labeled as shipping in 2-4 months actually arrived in 7 days.
I put my order in for one wrench. I have too many adjustable wrenches already, but that thing is purdy! Martin is quality. Thanks Stuart.
Hang Fire
Granted, this is truly one of those “your mileage may vary” topics.
Dave
If anyone is interested, I just got a notification that the wrench I ordered on 4/8 is shipping today! I had sorta forgotten about ordering it, since it wasn’t something I needed right away, so it’ll be like a birthday present.
Kurt
Got mine today. Ordered it a month ago (free shipping).
Good solid wrench, opens and closes easily, doesn’t jam like some I’ve had. There is a little slop in the moving jaw, but not bad. Probably not the highest quality wrench I’ve seen, but good.
“W F” forged in the back side.
Jerry
Ordered a few for gifts. Most of my 8 inch wrenches don’t open to 1 1/8 inch. In fact, I have a couple 12 inchers that don’t. If it is of any quality at all,it sounds like a good deal.
Andrew
Still waiting for my order from Amazon ordered 6 weeks ago, the high demand is a positive sign, here’s hoping the quality is up to standard.
Tomas
The Deal looks to be over, link now shows $20.96 price
Stan
I knew this deal wouldn’t last long. I figured about 24 hours at maximum.
Given this product is 100% made in the United States of America and at the time wasn’t that expensive I decided to order this.
Now what I am about to say isn’t meant to sound similar to anything negative but I’ve noticed a great deal of “sales” on Amazon items aren’t exactly that great of sales. $10 off a $200 power tool or 10% off said items that cost in the hundreds just isn’t that great of a sale.
But for the first time in years or potentially ever, this is the first Toolguy’d hot deal announcement I truly was interested in/could afford.
Supporting American manufacturing is exceptionally critic or at least this is.
Stuart
I hate to tell you this, but this isn’t good for “made in the USA” products.
Amazon is going to look at how many wrenches they sold at $21 each, and how many they cleared out at $3 each. What do you think they’re going to see? I’m guessing a 1:20 ratio, at least. This is going to affect their purchasing and promotional plans.
Amazon also doesn’t discount tools by such large amounts without reason. Amazon, Martin, or both companies are going to be losing money on all these $3 wrench sales.
With the other tools, you’re never really going to see large discounts. The margins on power tools are small. Professional and industrial tools are also rarely discounted because they know you’re going to buy them anyways. When is the last time you saw a discount on Channellock tools? Mayhew? Klein? Proto?
Amazon’s more random discounts occur when they want to move tools at a quicker rate, when they negotiate lower prices with manufacturers, when they want to undercut competitors, or if a tool hasn’t sold well but is being watched by a lot of customers in their carts or wishlists.
firefly
Agreed with Stuart here. A race to the bottom never helped anyone. Anyway Amazon is in the business of making money, I am sure this is a business decision so I highly doubt that they’ll end up losing money overall by offering such a deep discount. I say a win win for all as long as they don’t end up doing this all the time.
Stuart
Actually, Amazon has yet to turn a profit. They pull in a lot of sales and revenue, but no profit yet.
CB
The sale is over, it’s currently back to $17.54
ringo
Price is now $29.45. If I checked this site more frequently I would have bought a couple. The wages of lurking is missing out. 🙁
Stan
I just received this American made 8 inch Martin adjustable wrench today and on the back on this tool next to a circular indentation for hanging on a pegboard or so, these read WF and that entails Western Forge.
Now whilst I paid $2.90, I had a couple of my buddies buy several when the price went to $20+ so although I paid next to nothing, because of Toolguy’d I was able to help support American jobs.
I will say this, I haven’t used a brand new adjustable in several years, but I am impressed by this tool.
Considering that I believe Wright, Armstrong, Western Forge and maybe some others (not Crescent anymore though) are one of the few manufacturers that understand the importance of US manufacturing and still produce (at least for now) USA made adjustables, this is nice to see another option.
Jerry
Mine showed up just now (in August) and I can say that the jaws are parallel, and strong, for an 8 inch adjustable wrench. Build quality and finish are quite good, and I would not be surprised at a regular price around $20 or so. For $3, they were an incredible deal. The movable jaw has a small amount of play, less than most, but not as tight as the blue ChannelLocks you can get. However the jaws are as tight and move as smoothly as about anything else you can get nowadays.