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Hand tools are notoriously tricky things to improve. Many changes to hammers, pliers, don't make the product better—they just increase its complexity and cost. Every once in a while, though, some talented designers get it right. That seems to be the case with Crescent's Pass-Thru Adjustable Wrench Set.

The company took its storied 8-inch wrench and, where the hanging hole would normally be in the end of the handle, it put a pass-through socket drive. The wrench comes with 10 pass-through sockets that are metric on one end and SAE on the other.

That's a lot of versatility already. Then you consider that the 12-point design of the sockets will grab four different types of fastener heads, even those that are partially rounded: hex, square, 12-point, and external Torx.

The designers allowed the lower jaw to drop off and be reinstalled, forming a light-duty pipe wrench in the process. If you look carefully at the lower jaw, you'll see this is enabled by its saw tooth pattern on its bottom edge. When the jaw is reversed, the edge forms a potent pipe-gripping surface.