Herbrand No. 6827 Flex-Box Wrench
As tool makers sought to find better solutions for difficult service problems, someone came up with the fine idea of building a socket wrench with flexible joints at each end. This would then allow the tool to work at whatever angle was required for clearance, an important requirement for service jobs in tight places. Although the originator of the idea is not known, the Herbrand Company of Fremont, Ohio was one of the early makers of this type of wrench.
The figure below shows an early example of the Herbrand "Flex-Box" double-flex socket wrench, the model 6827 with size 5/8x3/4. The wrench is marked "Made in U.S.A." with "Flex-Box" on the reverse, and the overall length is 9.2 inches.
![[Herbrand 6827 5/8x3/4 Flex-Box Wrench]](Photos/tools/herbrand_ds2024_6827_wrench_f_cropped_inset.jpg)
The wrench is strongly constructed with wide flanges to drive the slotted sockets, a design that minimizes stress on the pins. The finish on the wrench is rough and pitted in places, but does show some of its original chrome plating.
Although the exact date of manufacture is not known, we can make an estimate from the details of the construction and with a few catalog resources. The sockets have 12-point broachings, which were not in general use until 1926 or 1927, so this wrench is likely later than 1927.
The 1937 Herbrand catalog has a listing for the model 6827 (and other) double-flex wrenches, but by then was using the brand name "Multiflex" for these wrenches. A Thorsen Tools catalog from 1935 also offers the Herbrand No. 6827 wrench, but again the name has already become "Multiflex". (As a side note, the early Thorsen Tools appeared to be more of a tool distributor than a tool maker, as more than half of the catalog entries are for other company's tools.) From these catalog references we can conclude that this Flex-Box wrench likely predates 1935.
If we examine the socket construction for the wrench, we see that it is cold-broached, with some chatter marks on the walls and a shelf of material in places. Since Herbrand is known to have switched to a hot-broached process for sockets by 1937, the cold-broached construction indicates a mid-1930s or earlier manufacture date, which is consistent with the catalog information. These considerations lead to an likely manufacturing date in the range 1930-1934.
Herbrand offered the 68xx Multiflex wrenches for quite a number of years, at least until the 1960s or 70s, and a number of other manufacturers offered them as well. Currently though, this style seems to have been phased out in favor of the flex-combination wrench, a model offering an open-end and flex socket of the same size.