What Is It? for 2/22/2014

Looks like maybe it's used for leather working. For working something that is stiff, rather than hard like wood. Maybe for grooving or slicing leather?

Antique tin snips?

You would expect the back end of the handle to be flat so as to be hit with a hammer if that was what it was used for.

But you could be right.

My thoughts also....

Looks kind of like what I think an old hammer operated steel strapping cutter might look like.

It's a tree bark slicer.

Can be drawn down the length of a sapling, slicing the bark. This allows peeling. The tool has adjustable blade depth, slicing blade can be sharpened.

This one was obviously home made by some handy cat somewhere.

I really don't think this is a cutting tool (and given my recent experience with cheap can openers, please... let it not be anything of the kind. ).

Actually, I think it is a gripper/handle that clamps the lid onto a hot pot and allows it to be moved without spilling.

kissing cousin to a "cats paw"

Lid lifter? Cats paw? Naw, you guys aren't even close.

AH and I are on the right track... even though the handle doesn't really look quite right for pushing or pulling very hard.

Some scale would be nice. Is this thing about 8" (200mm) or 24" (600mm) long?

Maybe for putting a tire onto a rim?

Scale would help, for sure. What kind of bark are you stripping there? I think that thing'd peel an elephant... or clean his toes.

Not used for actual stripping of the tree bark, it slices cleanly. Slice a straight line in the bark, use the prying nose of the tool to lift the split, and peel the log with fingers.

Some trees (for example, the canoe birch) can be stripped of their bark fairly easily, coming off in one piece if done carefully.

Elephant toe cleaner? Google can't seem to come up with an image for one of those, so I'll take your word on it.

When you say "peel the log with fingers" are you referring to that little jaw in the middle with the bolt holding it?

That's the bit that needs some explanation, and looks like something is to be gripped from both sides....

Then again, there's a notch on the top which also might deserve some explanation. If it's by design not by accident, then it starts to look like a tool for working with heavy wire...

"When you say "peel the log with fingers" are you referring to that little jaw in the middle with the bolt holding it?"

No, the digits... the fingers on your hands. Iron tools have a tendency to tear the bark when peeling. This is usually a bad thing, depending on the purpose of the log peeling exercise.

This might not be the function of the subject tool. Having barked some canoe birch trees in the past, and having seen another (similar) handmade tool with the purpose of slicing the bark, I am making an experienced HENWAY when I identify the subject tool.

OOOOPS! Good catch. Henway is a weight unit.

I should have said "I am making an experienced SWAG when I identify the subject tool."

Henway, duckdo, SWAG... boy, there's a lot to keep track of.

Unidentified acronym alert. <sirens sounds>

Please excuse my breach. As requested:

What's a SWAG: Scientific Wild Arse Guess
What's a Henway: About 3 and a half pounds
What's a Duckdo: He goes "Quack-quack"

PMSL!

Why is a Henway about 3.5 pounds?

PMSL? Unidentified acronym alert. <sirens sounds>

A henway is an indefinite FPS weight unit, about 3.5 pounds in Northwest USA. In some places, caponized birds are common and one henway is closer to 6 pounds (even though not really hens at all, the henway is still applicable to capons due to licensing agreement by LynDoor Foods Ltd.).

BTW, Why does a chicken coop have two doors?

Because if it had four doors, it would be a chicken sedan.

Brilliant!!

Great sideways thinking!!! (You all know what that is I hope?)

LOL!!

I'm confused....

Exactly! Chick in coup. (the back door does not show in your drawing.

Ha - nice one! I hadn't spotted that

....and there was me thinking I was slow.......

No need to worry about scale, then... we can estimate that the tool weighs 2 1/2#.

Maple syrup tapper?

Tail pipe cutter

Problem is, the end of the handle is rounded - definitely not designed to be struck with a mallet or hammer.

If it is a cutting tool, it would have to cut by pushing. Short run, maybe?

It could be used with an "air chuck" in an air hammer type device. Still stick with tailpipe cutter.

Generally, the tools I have seen for pneumatic sheet metal cutters do not have a replaceable or settable bit.

Bark cutter for rubber trees but without the hand grip, or something

You get bark on rubber trees? Next you will have me believe I need to water plastic trees!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubber

GIVE IT BACK !!

Torquemada.

Looks a lot like tools used for metal spinning.

What a superb example and so perfectly preserved. This is an original Gawumpathumper used by the ancient civilisation who, now extinct, through global warming, used this tool when the Gizmos location could not be utilised, as the Thimamyjigger may have slipped and become dislodged and rendered the Whatzit unservicable.

This clearly is the UK design, (right handed version), and predominantly used by the ancient cave dwelling Brits who inhabited Swindon, and surrounding areas of Wiltshiredon. This particular piece probably dates back to the early 1915's and may still be in common use with local towns-folks who also, have no idea what they are using. This a a very handy tool to have, when one needs one. Collectors of this ancient artifact could pay as high as £1.50 for this. It has been well preserved. This ancient tool was normally accompanied by an operator, an instruction manual in Braille, and a plastic container in which to keep all the components. If this kit is complete it could fetch as much as £2.00.

This is a jack hammer bit used for breaking grout and removing tile floors .....

Aha!!! Bath breaking tool!

I rest my carcase....

Ya gotta love power tools...

Maybe a grooving tool for caned furniture splines.

Looks like an early can opener

Depends on what early cans looked like. :-)

"Parry's tin of roasted veal contained instructions to open the can - "Cut round on the top near to the outer edge with a chisel and hammer"."

Where did you dig that up? :-)

From the root cellar?

It looks very much like the special tool required to adjust the clutch on a Spicer HD clutch as would be found in a dump truck. There would need to be a point to the end of the flat chisel shaped end. and the bolt would have to be free to turn.

400 × 400 - matcotoo

400 × 400 - matcotools.com

ls.com

The end is not actually round (i.e. hemispherical). It is flat with a chamfer around the edge. The pic doesn't represent the actual in this shot.

...and don't take too much notice of the 'notch' on the top. The insert (thin blade piece) was actually welded in place when I got it & I have since done a rough restoration to how it would have been originally (hence the clean metal areas visible, as they have been filed & reshaped back to close to original).

Okay. so the end isn't round and we shouldn't pay too much attention to the notch on the top and you've lovingly restored it to a version of it's former glory...

What the hell is it used for?

Well, as this was my first "What is it?", I am unsure when the secrets should be revealed...

Is that up to the Blog Admins, or should I?, & when is the appropriate time to let everyone off the hook?

I agree with Tornado: It isn't quite time to reveal yet in spite of my plea.

Some more hints would be welcomed: How and where you acquired it, era in which it would have been in common use, size... just about anything that won't be a giveaway. We can figure this out with a little bit more info.

It is a tool used in whaling, maybe?

Probably not. However, I remember once that some magazine (Smithsonian, IIRC) couldn't identify a flensing tool. (Which could be a good "What's This?" puzzle.)

It looks like a paper cutter off of a mill press or a newspaper printer.

It certainly looks like a form of bark spud, but an unusual one. Most are more like curved chisels with the sides sharpened as well but no center splitter. I have doubts about that splitter as it is being pushed through the bark instead of pulled, pushing is unstable. The chisel front on this doesn't look effective, a screwdriver would be better. Then there is the bolt, it looks to be in the way of a sheet of bark being peeled unless they turn the tool over for the peel.

I looked for other similar spuds without success. The only one that had an almost separate splitting spike was in Wiki. The other seem to rely on the sharpened sides.

from wikimedia.org

A normal bark spud.

This tool was used to slice and pry open suits of armour that had become dented and mangled from battle, in order for the body to be removed. The tool known as a BAR, (Body Armour Remover).

Any survivors were taken to the BAR, where they received refreshment to revive them. Normally mead. Hence, today, after a stressful day 'we go to the BAR'

It a tool for cutting sheet metal. Ronseto has it.
It is also missing a piece. There should be a large junk of metal that fits over the handle to use it like a slide hammer.

I'm in the trough or groove camp: the adjustment would set the depth of the trough.

What about a tool for tapping rubber or maple trees.

I agree. It's a gouger - I'm thinking you'd get very similar tools in all the applications mentions.

It's for making fullers...

I have concluded that 100% of the respondents have confurmed this is a tool. The question you raised was: What is this item? The answer is without doubt;

It is a TOOL.

...and not the only one here either!!!!

Being a woodworker myself. It looks curiously like an old wood inlay chisel. You can place a guide on your workpiece and run the chisel along the guide in a straight line and adjust the depth and it will cut a channel for your inlay. The reason that it looks like there is no mushrooming on the end because you would either push it by hand or tap it with a soft faced hammer like lead. I say lead hammer because that's what we used back then.