Can anyone identify this tool?

This beautifully made old tool was found among the tools of a recently deceased friend. The horizontal bar carrying the clamps is six inches long. The "button" on the top is cast iron. It is similar to a washer cutter that I have, but it's made to carry two blades (I assume, and a point in the square hole). Could it be for cutting rings in some gasket material? Any suggestions would be welcome.

Maurice Cox

Is that based on the suggestion that the assembly would rotate from a fixed point, thereby allowing the blades to carve a radius around some material?

Michael W

it's a brace for cutting out 'rings' of veneer.....the old veneers that were an eigth of an inch thick or more. Note that the cross bar is fitted upside down as the socket taper should be the other way. The cutters were usually stepped so that they could be reversed and then used to cut the housing edges for the veneer ring to fit into.

A good example of why I'm often impressed by the knowledge exhibited on this forum. Not only does Bob know what the tool is, he tells us that it's been assembled incorrectly!

Regards,

Dave

This place is like a roomful of Arthur Neguses, amazing

Thanks for solving the mystery for me Bob. I was going to make replacement parts for it , based one the washer cutter that I have, (my grandfather used it to cut washers for his pump, his only source of fresh water}. I shall have to do some research, now that I know what it is, before I try. It's not even mine, but i would like it to be seen as it was. I would label it as to which parts were replaced of course.

Regards Maurice

Maurice....interesting reference to your grandfather because the one and only time I have ever seen that tool, (and the reason I know what it is) was in the hands of my own grandfather when he was cutting veneer disks in his workshop during the early/mid 1950's. as near as I can remeber across 60 years the tool was virtually identical to that in your pics. I don't remeber seeing it before or after so assume that he borrowed it for the job. The crossbar and various cutters and pivots were kept in a canvas tool roll. I can clearly remember him showing me how it worked and that he used a flat, leather covered pivot pad held in the square taper to cut out the veneer disks.

.......i forgot about this tool for nearly 60 years but about two years back when I was 'delving' into the methods of 17th C clock makers I suddenly remembered it and came to the conclusion that they must has used a very similar tool to cut out chapter rings and clock faces from sheet brass,...possibly also the actual wheel blanks too. Actually, a tool like this would be quite useful to me now for that purpose.

Is anything really "new?" Maybe just forgotten then bought to light.

Is anything really new?

Well, I'm not sure, but I have never come across a reference to LED street lights in Caesar's Gallic Wars ...

Cheers, Tim

Well played!