So, what are the differences between a Grimmer Wilson straight key and a Wilson?

Well, first, there is a misconception that the Wilson and Grimmer Wilson were all used in WWII by the military and therefore militaria. 

From what I have seen this is not true.

The keys that were used by the military have all got the code 10F/556 stamped into the lever between the adjustment screws. 7 of my 10 keys (so far) have the stamp. That was the code used by the war department to signify this type of straight key much like the J-38 was the designation for one of the US forces keys.

The Grimmer Wilson has a slightly longer square lever shaft and the adjuster hardware has a rounded kurled surface with a single knurled pattern whereas the Wilson lever is slightly shorter with a squared knurled surface on the adjusters with a checkered knurling.

Another odd difference is that even though the oval bases appear to be identical, the fastening screw holes are spaced differently!

The Wilson has 2 holes spaced 1-1/8" apart equally spaced from the centre and in line side to side.

The Grimmer Wilson on the other hand is slightly more than 1-1/8" apart with the right side hole in the same position as the Wilson and the left hole slightly offset to the left and slightly toward the finger piece! 

At first this seemed like it could be an anomoly, but after seeing it in 5 examples, it appears to be intentional.

There appears to have been 4 basic colours for the key. Dark gray and medium gray are fairly common with blue gray being next. I have also found 2 examples of gray brown in the Wilson only so far. 

Another thing that I have noticed on SOME of the Wilsons is that they have a painted marking saying "Made In Canada" which is not on my Grimmers but also not on all of the Wilsons.

Well, that is it for the Wilson type keys aside from one last thing.

Both variants also made a trainer for learning the code. I have one of the Wilson variants and it bears the war department broad arrow stamp on the underside signifying military procurenment.

73 and get on the air!

Tom