Originally Posted by
pdlamb
I'm not sure our positions are mutually exclusive. Running a bike shop? Sure, you'll probably want a full set of cone wrenches. And other specialized tools, like perhaps a bottom bracket shell facing tool, which most casual cyclists won't need to maintain their bike(s). From the tone of the O.P., my assumption is that he's the latter use case.
Actually I don't run or work in a bike shop but I've owned and worked on a lot of different hubs in 35+ years of riding and servicing my own and a few friend/family bikes. My nearly complete set of cone wrenches was accumulated piecemeal as I needed specific sizes.
Park's SCW-XX single size cone wrenches are well made, strong, comfortable to use and fairly low cost. They are less than $10 each even these days and a lot less when I was buying most of mine years ago. I would avoid the double end cone wrenches as they are quite uncomfortable to use. I was given a pair of beautiful Campagnolo double end cone wrenches (13/14 and 15/16) years ago but never use them as they are both too short and too hard on the hands.