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First New Years Mystery Item!

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SillyOldDuffer05/01/2023 15:39:19
10668 forum posts
2415 photos
Posted by Nigel Graham 2 on 03/01/2023 20:11:17:

Well, we can discount jewellery making, but my friend suggested another line of enquiry:

His reply:

Hi Nigel,

It’s nothing to do with silver or metalsmithing as far as I am aware. My thoughts would be a mount for a scientific/ maritime instrument?

Cheers

Adrian

If scientific, possibly a school laboratory instrument, by its simple but rugged construction?

I like the idea, but probably not scientific because the scale appears to be inches. Science was metric for more than a century before British industry.

I wonder if the three "inches" are all the same size. If different, they might be a form of vernier scale, where three pointers on a sliding item add up coarse, fine and extra-fine.

Dave

Fowlers Fury05/01/2023 16:10:55
avatar
446 forum posts
88 photos

Tried my usual 1st tactic with these intriguing "what is it" queries - upload the image to Google's Reverse Image Look-up.
No pretence at all that this is the answer but an interesting trail resulted.
croze.jpg

There was a bit of similarity to the basic shape of a tool I'd never heard of - a cooper's CROZE.
This was a curved plane used in barrel making for cutting the inside rebate where the lid would be hammered in. A further search on "coopers croze" produced dozens of images none of which exactly matched the OP's pictures but might indicate the article was part of such a plane. However unlikely, it's been a welcome education.

Rob McSweeney07/01/2023 15:24:25
98 forum posts

Could it be a special purpose compositors stick? To take three short lines of type for something like the message in a greetings card. The grooves being to take adjustable end stops to position the type relative to the dimensions of the card.

Tim Stevens07/01/2023 17:34:29
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1779 forum posts
1 photos

The compositor idea suggests to me that it was a holder for the type masters for a machine engraver. The slots could accommodate master letters of different sizes, or two or more rows, and the big slots (as Rob suggests above) could hold movable end stops to keep everything centred.

That seems much more likely than a hand-compositor's tool, as they need to be light for holding in one hand all day, and don't need the ability to set more than one line at once. But I'm guessing, like we all are.

Cheers, Tim

Martin King 209/01/2023 14:44:23
avatar
1129 forum posts
1 photos

Hi All,

Sorry to have been so tardy but have been very busy with lots of tool restorations and listings. All tucked in with some very nasty bouts of BPPV, less than ideal!

Michael G: I have checked the markings with a good vcaliper and they are all spot on inches and fractions, all the same width so no vernier.

F Fury: I have had several coopers croze tools and all have bee pretty much on the rough and ready side rather than precision as this part indicates. I do however feel you may well be on the correct track..

What may not show clearly in my photos is the fact that the grooves are cut very much at an angle to the plane of the main surface as if they were to take a sliding part of some sort. I agree that I have the photo upside down almost certainly.

Curiouser and curiouser! Cheers, Martin.

Nigel Graham 209/01/2023 16:22:57
3293 forum posts
112 photos

Engraving-machine copy-holder? I don't think it was that.

The ratchet-like angles of the steps are quite clear, and I drew attention to them a while back as perhaps a way to step something over another part without raising the overall height too much.

The wood-working theme seems feasible, and I'd suggest there it might have been part of a setting-tool for some sort of special-purpose plane, morticing-machine head or similar; possibly specific to a particular line of wood-work.

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