Unusual Tool

Can anybody identify this tool? It came in a box of old tools given to me recently. The button on top is part of a spring loaded plunger. There is a blade which travels to the end when the button is pressed. The blade travels in two slots to keep it steady. There is no evidence that as ever been hit with a hammer. It is well made, but there are no manufacturers' marks on it.

James.

Edited By James Alford on 02/12/2018 11:19:39

Edited By James Alford on 02/12/2018 11:20:20

Edited By James Alford on 02/12/2018 11:21:43

A photo would help

I was posting from my phone and could not work out how to add the pictures............ Reverted to the laptop.

looks like a leather cutter you place the shoe on the work press with your palm on the knob and the blade comes down and just goes under the material and cuts as you glide the tool along your cutting line..

does that seem plausible as i’ve Not seen the blade

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Looks like some sort of a grooving tool to me - the blade looks a couple of mm wide and seems if it cuts square to the width?

Edited By James Alford on 02/12/2018 11:33:35

Edited By James Alford on 02/12/2018 11:37:38

It looks a bit like a driver for holding a slot head screw. Is the "blade" slightly offset to provide a wedging action?

Rod

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Button remover.

Martin C

Could be a home made Punch Down Tool for phone/ethernet wiring Mike.

Thank you for the suggestions. If I see the person who gave it to me again, I shall ask her whether she has any idea what it is. I believe that the tools were her husband's who has, I think, died. Knowing what he did for a living might give a clue.

James.

A few years ago, I visited Waterperry Gardens, where there is a small museum of rural items. In a cabinet there was a mystery item that was thought to be a tool used in the process of grafting plants. Although that one had a trigger mechanism, rather than a plunger, and was made of brass, I wonder if this is a variation on a theme.

**LINK**

Brian

Wife spent her working life as a tailoress and her opinion is that it could well be for removing buttons although she has never come across one, not to say that they don’t exist.

Dave W

I would bet (a small amount) that it is a leather working tool for cutting a groove in leather shoe soles where the stitching goes.